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State to require sun-blocking car windows
June 26th, 2009, 3:30 pm · 46 Comments · posted by Pat Brennan, science, environment editor
New cars sold in California must include windshields that block or absorb the sun’s rays beginning in 2012, the state Air Resources Board ruled this week. 
The new regulation is meant to keep cars cooler, cutting the need for air conditioning, saving energy and reducing emissions that contribute to global warming, the agency says.
To meet the new rules, car windows will have to block 33 percent more of the sun’s heat-producing rays than cars windows do today. Because the rays being blocked are in the infrared part of the spectrum, the windows would not require tinting, and will look no different from present-day car windows, said air board spokesman Stanley Young.
“It uses a very microscopic sputtering of metal particles that act as tiny invisible mirrors,” Young said.
With more of the sun’s heat blocked, cars interiors should be about 14 degrees cooler, SUV or pickup interiors about 12 degrees.
The reduction in use of air conditioning is expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 700,000 metric tons by 2020 — the equivalent of taking 140,000 vehicles off the road for a year, the agency says.
The two-step regulation requires cars sold for the first three years to block 45 percent of the sun’s heat-producing energy, windshields at least 50 percent; in 2016, car windows must block 60 percent.
The agency says it will cost an average of $70 for the first three years to comply, and $250 after 2016.
It’s one of several measures adopted by the agency to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including a low-carbon fuel standard and a requirement that smog-check and other maintenance facilities check tire pressure.
(Register photo of rain on windshield by Eugene Garcia.)
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Just a bunch of hot air. At least they didn’t outlaw dark paint – like they had proposed earlier in the year.
What a bunch of RETARDS. The RETARDS are in control.
President black retard
Vice president white retard
Speaker of the house female retard
………………………………………………………
Oh, this was the most brilliant comment this evening … thank you!!!!! (And no, I’m not being sarcastic … BO, and his retarded team, will simply things much worse than they currently are.)
Thanks for showing how smart YOU are with your amazingly intelligent comments.
California driveing up the cost of owning a car so the working man will move to another state.
” the equivalent of taking 140,000 vehicles off the road for a year, the agency says.”
Business already move to other states, and people will start leaving the state too..no need this non sense crap.
You folks have not seen nothing yet! They just passed the WORST bill in U.S. history today on global warming. Jan 2010 expect MAJOR price increases in electric & gas.
You must be talking about “Cap and Trade” right?
That is time bomb waiting to sink the US economy and to make us unable to compete internationally. It is insane.
I think America’s enemies have developed a bio-weapon that affects American politicians, causing them to spend trillions, invent new entitlements that cost more trillions and ignore the trillions we are already in debt for.
And California gets it from Washington AND Sacramento!
I feel like an insect mounted by a pin in some giant’s bug collection.
Good thing we have been feeding the occasional deer out back apples. I’m going to have to live on venison alone if this cr*p gets any worse!
What?? That’s just a load of B-S! This is just an excuse to charge more for the cost of a car, which in turn raises taxes. Taxes that assessed year after year. If they were so worried about cutting emissions, they should get rid of AC units altogether.
Sounds like cool technology. Stick to those pigs in the car manufacturing business. Glad to see gm and chrysler go bankrupt, Ford needs to be next.
why can’t they throw those mirror-like particles in dark paints?
They do it’s called metal flake and matalic paint!
c’mon people, step outside of yourselves for a minute, this is called progress, for the greater good! i love it!
Oh, spare me … you must be one of those who thinks BO will save the world.
Progress? If the little metal “Sputtering” that acts like mirrors to reflected the sun means that headlights from behind will be reflected into drivers eyes!
They cannot prognosticate financial bubbles everyone knows is going to burst, creating fiscal insolvency, being unable to balance a budget. Yet, here, they have the time to deal with something a benign as this. Oh, yeah, I’m going to entrust those nimrods to figure out what is best for me.
You’re trying too hard buddy. You cannot use a word like “prognosticate” in a fragment sentence that uses an incorrect copula.
The Stig: Keep it clean, Buddy.
Sooooooooooo stupid!! Making cars 1 mile per gallon more efficient would do much more good than worrying about how hot or cold the interior is. Dumb. Pushing for electric cars? Even better.
YES! Just what California needs….MORE regulations! I can’t wait to get outta here….
More stupidity from a brainless state government.
Give me a break! They want more of our money! I can’t take it and I can’t believe others can take it! We are cutting education and increasing taxes. Here is one more thing they want us to pay for. Something they think we can’t figure out on our own. The sun is hot and us white folks need to wear sun block. No sh&*! I know that and have lived in California my whole life. STOP thinking for me! You are ruining my state. I am the third generation to live here and love it but it is being ruined by spendy blow hards.
Ummmm aren’t the supposed to be figuring out a FREAKING BUDGET???
Unbelievable! Someone referred to the environmental movement as the “Watermelon Party — green on the outside, red on the inside” I so didn’t believe it. Now…perhaps I do!
Car windows. How much of their time on our dime did it take for them to come up with that?! Bah!
Why not? They already created a bunch of smoke and mirrors that absorb our hard-earned money without benefit to us, thereby reducing tax emissions that are not under their control. Sounds about right!
Idoits! Is there such a thing as inverse intelligence? I need some conceptual explanation for why these people who are running government entities make these type of decisions. Although I do have to admit, global warming has been one of the best scare tactics they’ve arrogantly thrust upon our time to sqeeze more and more money from.
On the other hand, we should invest in windshields that have fiscal-block technology. This emerging technology absorbs all attempts by the government to take our money and our freedoms and reduces emotional emissions that include hatred, sarcasm, loathing, anger, fear, anguish, disdain, irreverance, anarchy, etc…
Unfortunately we’d probably have to rely on the muckity-mucks to pass this. Dang it!
I guess the rocket geniuses who thought this one up didn’t think to just crack your windows a bit to let the hot air out.
Dumber than a sack of hammers!
It’s time to disband the state Flatulate Air Resources Board.
Let’s see now… the idiots in the sate now want sun-blocking car windows… but if you have dark tinted windows, the CHPies will give you a ticket. Yes, the retards really are running this state.
Thats cool, I like a cool interior.
For the love of God please will Sacramento just put this nonsense on the back burner for a few years?.Global whatever can wait. We really need a budget.
Finally a useful car feature, and it’s good to see the US is trying to catch up with Asia in technology.
pathetic.
With laws like this, Calif deserves to go broke. It may be the only way voters will get mad enough to throw these idiots out of office.
It does actually work, though I’m not sure it would be enough of an effect to justify the cost in realistic circumstances. It’s one of those things I would absolutely get if I still lived in Phoenix, but in the cooler parts of CA it makes less sense. I don’t really use my AC that much in Irvine.
There is a secondary benefit though that you appreciate if you’ve owned a car for many years in the low desert – lower parking temperature means the interior won’t degrade as fast. That heat really messes with the polymers used in car interiors nowadays. Then again, that’s why smart people in the low desert put shades in their windshield when they park in the sun.
If it was me deciding, I’d probably require that it be available as an option in SoCal, but I don’t think it will do enough for a sufficient number of drivers to justify mandating it for all cars. This is one thing where if it really does work, it should sell itself. People are always looking for “cold air” and this option should drastically improve AC performance.
While I’m dubious as to the reduction in emissions this will achieve it is something I would BUY for my vehicles were it an option. I hate getting in a sweltering auto that takes ten minutes to cool with the puny AC unit running on max.
It is the mandating of it that bothers me. As noted in the article this will raise the price of a car by $70 to $250. $250 is about 1.5% of the total price of a basic economy car. Might be insignificant to many but not for others. Call it an extra car payment , a month’s worth of groceries or new clothes for school and that fancy windshield is a luxury many would prefer not to have to buy.
Then there are those who don’t need it at all. If you live in San Francisco or other cool coastal regions, have a garage or covered parking that sun blocking windshield is about as useful as teats on a boar!
Ben, you are a genius, JUST like our elected leaders.
“and this option should drastically improve AC performance.”
With voters of this caliber, able to draw this conclusion from a retarded blog article w/ NO scientific data AT ALL.
lemme guess, BO supporter?
BEN, your a retard too………
Now is not the time for more regulation. We cannot control the mess we have now.
Fix the current mess then move on.
Next will be a law to require installation of the new sun block windshield on all older cars! Then wait until Obama establishes a new bureaucracy of compliance inspectors to enforce this law. Then new taxes will be enacted to pay for this multi-billion dollar bureaucracy. This will force Americans to buy NEW cars from Chrysler and General (government) Motors to keep them solvent. That should keep the unions happy!
State is broke and they spend time on stuff like this?
It’s time for a Green Revolution in the State of Calfornia!
Let’s pass a Constitutional Amendment to kick every single one of our state legislators (R or D) out of office & provide that they can never run for state office again. Every one of these idiots must go.
I’m not happy about this being passed myself, but man, some of you people protesting against it are displaying immaturity and lack of intelligence. You are spewing a bunch of neocon mumbo jumbo without even putting any thought into it. Listen to Limbaugh or Hannity much?
all hail Obama.
Obviously, someone in Sacramento has ties to that industry. No politicians do anything for the citizens anymore. They ALL have an agenda. Where is Jimmy Stewart when you need him? (Mr. Smith goes to Washington) If you look at the history of ACORN and realize that Obama has had a strong connection to that group, you can see where comments like “progress for the general good” come from. We are in the middle of the storm with idiots for politicians and the clueless in the electorate. South County, unfortunately, we have a bandwagon mentality. I am not touting Fox news but at least it is ONE station that gives an alternate view. Any intelligent person would at least CONSIDER more than one side to any issue. There are no more critical thinkers among the young it seems to me. If someone told me that they were considering a bill AGAIN that the lawmakers have not even READ yet, and are ready to pass, I would not have believed you. Who in real life professions behave in such a manner?
Whatever happened to “the customer is king”? This reminds me of the stupid laws in the early 80s where you could be cited for “driving in an inefficient manner” Why not just let people who want them buy them?
Another little Hitler in Sacramento is probably grinning about his success in getting everyone to do what he wants.
Or someone patented it and bought off a legislator or two.
How come they don’t have resources to keep parks etc. open yet they manage to fund this idiotic waste? With all the paperwork (which kills trees) updating the laws it will cost millions before the first car rolls off the line.
There’s some seriously dumb comments here, where do I start.
1. One guy says the window idea is stupid and electric cars are better. Hmm, The windows lowered temp does add up to long term results. Battery powered electric cars are very damaging to the enviroment (read about Lith-Ion development).
2. All the BO comments, stupid. What the H does barak have to do with any of this? Stupid fat OC guys and yer choppers and/or harleys – get a life. go back to your church ha ha. What does ACORN have to do with too? Freakin loosers, what? you wanted that old white guy to be prez? Are you serious?
3. CA havs some retarded laws, but this isn’t one of them.
4. I like how the last guy says that this project wasted trees, ha ha. You know research is done on computers dude. OMG, typical OC = fail
Dude, quit drinking the Obama kool-aid. The technologies being being legislated by the Government are technologies that are not viable technologies that the private sectors would invest in. Let the private companies invest in these technologies and see which technologies have
promise. Don’t force the public to accept bad science.
Typical politicians with a financial agenda. What a waste of money, time, energy, and it will increase costs for the already struggling consumer. Also, enjoy the future increase in taxes, which will probabaly prevent most of us from buying a new car anyway. We would be more wise if we actually voted for QUALITY politicians that serve the best INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE. Do any of those even exist?