As part of its Great Five Year Plan For Great Leap Beyond Carbon Economy, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will require "Environmental Performance" labeling for all new cars sold in the state, starting in 2009. "Consumer choice is an especially powerful tool in our fight against climate change," CARB chair Mary Nichols insists. We'll gladly concede labels are a far less draconian approach than what one might otherwise expect from an unelected environmental agency with a broad mandate and an $800m budget. But if CARB really wants to give its labels a fighting chance, they should ditch the laissez-faire and mandate permanent labels. That must be visible from twenty yards. Then they could decriminalize keying vehicles which score below a four on "Smog" and "Global Warming." And casual observers wouldn't have to look up your eco-friendly car's EP score at driveclean.ca.gov. Especially when that website is "temporarily down for maintenance," as it was at the time of writing.
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what the hell is a CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR?
i’m confused
It’s a newspaper.
Why is a source of news and opinion so afraid of information?
(My posting seems to be a little messed up today)…
Of course I am not even referring to the original CSM story, which is surprisingly free of editorializing. But instead, I am referring to Niedermeyer fear mongering on this. What’s wrong with a label that gives the consumer more information. I’m sitting here, in California, eating my Soy Crisps (natch), coincidentally reading the nutrition label as this story comes up. Its useful info. Whats so bad about that?
They already make and attach permanent labels to gas guzzlers already. They are spelled with the letters H-U-M-M-E-R and G-M-C
So that’s the um… person… who keeps trying to kill Diesel cars in the US. Figures.
–chuck
No one person is trying to kill diesels in California. When a diesel is clean enough to meet even the most basic air quality standards, it will be allowed in California. Apparently this is about to happen, tho I seem to have been hearing that for the past 3 years….
I was going more for “making light of” rather than “fearmongering about” this decision. Like I wrote, far better this than, well, more “top down” approaches. Seriously though, the only people that this will matter to are those that will wish the label were permanent, forever broadcasting their enlightenment to the unwashed. Also, I’m not sure why these labels are so much more effective than (mandated) EPA ratings for informing efficient consumer choices.
What? They want to give consumers MORE information? And they want it to be easy to find and read? Oh, the nerve!
Someone needs to next label bureaucrats. Californians can’t seem to figure that out.
CSM does a pretty good at news reporting. At least they try to keep things balanced. It is not religious newspaper and they blatantly don’t try to cram their agenda down your throat.
You can consume CSM along with other news sources to try to get a balanced media diet.
Maybe fear-mongering was a little harsh, when rushed I may not be the best wordsmith. By admitting to being a Soy-eating Californian, I think I was trying to bring a little levity to the debate as well. However, we in CA, esp SF Bay Area, get tired of being labelled as commies just for trying to improve the quality of life for everybody.
Perhaps that’s the problem.
Your approach is akin to old-world missionaries who tried to save the world through prosetylization but instead blazed a trail of destruction while masking it in the cloak of benevolence.
Marc,
As I recall, there already is a sticker on cars that notates this info. It’s called the window sticker. The same information is also available at fueleconomy.gov.
$800mm for this department?? And we’re $17B in the red at the state level. I think we’ve found a place to start cutting that budget and get some teachers back to work. After all, with our high school drop out rate in LA hovering around 50%, some new car buyers may not even be able to read that nice new label CARB wants to use.
How ’bout this – we take CARB’s budget and hire some cops, build a charter school or two or maybe even (gulp) pay down our debt.
What an idea.
“However, we in CA, esp SF Bay Area, get tired of being labelled as commies just for trying to improve the quality of life for everybody.”
Marc knows best.
Since when is it a problem giving consumers more information on the vehicles they buy?
I guess this wouldn’t be TTAC without a knee-jerk reaction to pretty much any regulation remotely related to cars.
Success to our glorious five year plan!
As a Nevadian I’m all for it.
It will just push more economic activity and jobs out to NV, OR and AZ.
It the tomfoolery of the Communist Air Resources Board that props up the price of my too hot for CA Diesel KJ.
@bluecon:
Marc knows best.
He knows no worse than some frequent commenters to this site.
jkross, I’ll gladly have some of my tax dollars go to an agency that enables me to breathe. Perhaps you are not old enough to remember the good old days of smog in the 60s and 70s. Also the current sticker does not give enough info, CO2 emissions are missing for instance.
bluecon… ???? I have no response. I cant tell if you are either agreeing or disagreeing that CA is in the forefront of many products and technologies that improve people’s lives. People can decide that for themselves, I dont have time to decide it for them, I have a CPUSA meeting to attend.
Marc,
Please explain how CARB is helping you breathe. Have they produced some results that directly relate to air quality?
If you would like to fund my portion of this program, I’ll give you the address of a local Boy’s Club in your area where you can send the check. They’ll do much more good with the money than CARB will.
This waste of money is analogous to the $250B highway bill at the national level. No accountability and a loosey goosey charter with no track record of results.
BTW, driveclean.ca.gov is still down. Guess we know where the $800mm isn’t going.
CARB is no longer about air quality. They’re just the justification needed for CHP to impound your car if they think you’ve been street racing.
Besides, we already have enough stickers. We have stickers that tell us our cars require unleaded gasoline(as if there was any other kind available in the US), we have stickers on our visor warning us not to sit too close to the airbag (sucks to be you if you have short legs), we have stickers telling us to not operate our navigation system while driving (god bless those attorneys), stickers that tell us how much air we should put in our tires (just in case that low-pressure monitor isn’t working right), stickers for how to use a seat belt…it goes on and on. Then again, what’s one more sticker in a land where there’s a proposal to put warning stickers on WiFi devices to warn people that unsecured networks are not safe.
Why do I feel like Andy Rooney after this rant?
The air’s a whole lot better now than when I was growing up. Except today; it’s full of ash from fires…
quasimondo,
don’t forget about the sticker that says not to use a hair dryer while you’re in the bath tub.
We commies dont have to explain ourselves. If you disagreee, well just send you to Fresno for some re-conditioning.
Thats the last I will comment on this one, Go back to your 8 mpg, soot belching Trans Ams. Im takin the Prius to to a sit-in.
California should increase the gas guzzler tax and tax any vehicle over a certain weight and use that money to research alternative energy! Yay for tax and spending!
To marc and the rest of the SF Bay Area commies;
Making life better for everyone? Thanks for nothin. U and CARB gave us MTBE, thanks for nothin. Except poison in the groundwater. Do u really drive a toyota battery operated dustbuster? And you want the rest of us to drive one too dont you? What happened to “It’s a free country”? Oh that’s right, you’re a bay area effete snob and a commie and u know best.
enjoy your sit in today. What’s the topic? Protesting against today’s Supreme court ruling affirming the 2nd amendment? Or trying to overturn some other Constitutional edict?
I’ll sit here eating peanuts, drinking green tea and listening to Michael Savage. He’s talking about impeaching ruth bader ginsburg right now. We should be so lucky.