The Arizona PIRG Education Fund applauded the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council (GRRC) for voting in favor today of the Clean Cars Program, which is designed to reduce health-damaging pollution from automobiles and pave the way for the widespread introduction of technologies like hybrid-electric and fuel-cell vehicles, direct-injection engines, advanced transmissions, improved air conditioning systems, and other technologies with the potential to reduce pollution.
In her testimony to GRRC, Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona PIRG Education Fund pointed to transportation-related emissions which are responsible for approximately 39 percent of Arizona’s global warming pollution and Arizona’s anticipated population growth which will mean more automobiles on the roads and therefore more vehicle exhaust contributing to the formation of ground-level ozone, an air pollutant that affects public health conditions such as asthma and lung disease, as reasons why GRRC should approve the Clean Cars Program.
“Since carbon dioxide (a leading contributor to global warming) and other greenhouse gas emissions in Arizona have increased 464 percent since 1960, and since carbon dioxide pollution from cars and light trucks in Arizona could double from 1990 to 2020 unless action is taken, the Clean Cars Program is not only necessary but it is essential to reducing emissions,” stated Brown.
According to research from the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, the Clean Cars Program will cut carbon dioxide emissions from cars, light trucks and SUVs in Arizona by 7.25 million metric tons annually by 2025, the equivalent of taking 1.3 million of today’s cars off the road for an entire year.
In September 2006, the Governor’s Climate Change Advisory Group (CCAG), a diverse group of stakeholders including utility, business, public health, environmental, tribal and other leaders agreed the Clean Cars Program makes sense for Arizona and unanimously included it as part of their 49 policy recommendations to reduce global warming emissions in Arizona.
In accordance with recommendations from the CCAG, the governor issued an Executive Order in September 2006 which included adoption and implementation of the Clean Cars Program. When the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) conducted its public hearing in March 2008 as part of the rulemaking process, over 100 people attended and of the approximately 45 who testified approximately 75% were in favor (the only opposition came from representatives of the auto industry).
Aside from the stakeholder process, over 75 small businesses and organizations from across the state have stated their support for the Clean Cars Program in Arizona. In addition, thousands of Arizonans have written letters, signed postcards and sent emails to urge the advancement of the Clean Cars Program.
Once the federal government acknowledges the right of the states to proceed on this issue and Arizona has completed the necessary process, Arizona will join with the 13 other states, over a third of the U.S. market, that have adopted the Clean Cars Program.
Brown said today’s vote “steers Arizona in the right direction toward cleaning the air, improving public health and saving consumers money at the gas pump.”
