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California Cars
Tue Jan 28, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook's weekly segment on global climate
change.
A new law in California gives car manufacturers three years to come up with a plan to
dramatically reduce tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases. As Chris Richard reports today,
the measure is shaking up the auto industry and attracting attention from lawmakers across the
country.
In smog-testing centers like this one near Beverly Hills, cars spin their tires at freeway
speeds while computerized equipment measures a spectrum of pollutants that contribute to smog
and acid rain. If the cars don't pass, their owners can't register them. It's the nation's
most rigorous clean air test. But soon it will get even tougher.
A new California law orders state regulators to come up with standards for tailpipe emissions
of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, by the year 2006. Then, the car companies will
have another three years to meet those standards.
State Assemblywoman Fran Pavley sponsored the legislation.
FP: We've always been out in front in reducing air pollution. I've seen booklets that show
what European nations are doing, what Asian nations are doing, what the United States is
doing, and then a whole separate category, what California is doing.
As the nation's biggest car market, California has a lot of influence over automotive
technology, but because the best known way to cut emissions is to build fuel-efficient cars,
automakers say Pavley's legislation could mean the end of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles.
Eron Shosteck of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers says Pavley's law tampers with
federal regulations.
ES: The fuel economy standard is something that the federal government has reserved unto
itself. And no state can preempt a federal law.
Automakers plan to fight California's law in court.
But Pavley says there are other ways to reduce emissions, and she's confident the greenhouse
gas standard will become a national model.
Our segments on global climate change are produced with support from The New England Science
Center Collaborative and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation.
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