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Smog regulator: New mileage standards will help clear O.C., L.A. air
May 19th, 2009, 4:39 pm · 13 Comments · posted by Pat Brennan, science, environment editor
President Obama’s decision to toughen fuel economy standards for carmakers, announced Tuesday, will have a big effect on Southern California: helping the troubled region meet federal clean-air targets that might otherwise have been difficult to reach.
Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (right), said Obama’s new standards — an average 35.5 miles per gallon for new autos — also will mean clearer skies and a smaller contribution to climate change.
“The action today is important for Southern California,” he said. “It means less local air pollution as well as a reduction in greenhouse gases. And everyone wins. Consumers get cars with better mileage, and there will be less air pollution associated with the delivery of gasoline and the fueling of vehicles.”
The South Coast air basin, which includes all of Orange County and parts of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, must meet federal targets for ground-level ozone — a lung irritant — by 2024, and for fine particle pollution, which can work its way deep into the lungs, by 2015.
Before Obama’s action, Wallerstein said, his agency was looking at a welter of different regulations, including state standards that might or might not have been approved by the federal government.
“This allows us to move forward to implement the clean air plan in the manner in which it was envisioned,” Wallerstein said. “This important step forward ensures that vehicles across the country will meet the same standards.”
(Photo courtesy South Coast Air Quality Management District.)
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This is great!! In addition to 10 percent plus, and rising, unemployment in California, it won’t be long before everyone’s riding bicycles up the I-5/405 to L.A.. from south OC. But at least plugging up the arteries with bikes. rickshaws and motorbikes, we won’t be polluting the skies with this “global warming” nonsense.
HEY Barry Wallerstein, does this mean YOU will give up the car the TAXPAYERS give you? Will YOU limit YOUR travel to save the air quality….or does this only apply to others?
I have a feeling we won’t see you in the car pool lane anytime soon.
Now they will control what car we drive……… statist socialist life control. USSA.
Of course Obama will drive his kids to school in the giant suburbans, and he will forever be driven around in a tank of a limo. What a hypocritical load of horsesqueeze this man is.
Only way to achieve 35MPG is for everyone to drive tiny little death-mobiles that fold up like accordians during a crash. Safety is being compromised. People should have a choice whether they want to spend more money to drive a bigger car and be safe, or to save money and take more risk. For example motorcycles are very fuel efficient but they are also very dangerous. With Obama’s plan we will all be driving tiny covered motorcycles.
8000 lbs. pushing a 90 lb. soccer OC mom? I won’t miss it.
If the air was as clean as it is now, NONE of the environmental laws would have passed back in the 70′s.
There is a point of diminishing returns and we have passed it. It now cost more lives per pound of pollution saved than ever be justified. In fact it may be costing more lives than it saves. Money would be better spent on other problems.
Jack Frost
I was just given 1960′s Dodge muscle car. Smog exempt V8 that I will drive forever. Enjoy my fumes you smart car bandwagon fools.
LA is the second most environmentally friendly nation in the nation, second only to San Fran
WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?
Great for population control. More deaths in each collision.
Why stop at a measly 35MPG? Why not legislate 100MPG? The law is the law. If big greedy car and oil companies don’t like it they they can get out of here. Remember the carburetor in the 1970s that could get 75MPG in a full size car that the oil companies suppresed? (Snicker).
The bottom line is: When CAFE standards were established and enforced, it resulted in the most unreliable cars in the 1980s. Now that manufacturers have finally gotten the bugs out there will be another wave of vehicles famous for intermittently stalling on railroad tracks, left turns etc. that the average mechanic can’t fix because it wont fail in the shop. People should decide, not some pompous dictator who rides a limo that gets about 5MPG. I am 6-5 and can’t drive a subcompact anyway.
However, if you choose to buy a vehicle that gets 10MPG that you really don’t need, don’t cry if gas goes to $5 a gallon.
Since I take public transportation and walk almost every day
and I have a 1973 stock Nova straight 6 as back up
I could care less
I think I will hug my Nova when I get home today
It saves me a ton of money every year!
If smog is an issue why not get rid of those unregistered smog belchers that permeate our cities?
Anyway CO2 has nothing to do with smog. It is necessary for plants to grow. In studies that double the CO2 in an enclosed environment plants grew faster and with less water than the ones with natural amounts.
Hello says:
May 20, 2009 at 8:52 amIf smog is an issue why not get rid of those unregistered smog belchers that permeate our cities?
.
Many a time I would see those kind of vehicles and cops right behind or next to the and not pull them over
Because they know these owners will never show up to court or get them fixed and it would cost the cities and counties a bundle to seize them
Its far easier for them to punish me and other law abiding tax payers
Thats why I will never EVER get rid of my 73 Nova
and those ignorant stooges like Mr Wallerstein can go make love to themselves!
How about they do something about overpopulation first!