As the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) prepares to hold a Clean Cars Program public hearing tonight, advocates and others held a news conference today to highlight support for the Clean Cars Program in Arizona, which limits health damaging pollution from automobiles. The Program is known to 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.
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.
Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona PIRG Education Fund stated, “The Clean Cars Program is a win-win-win for Arizona. The Clean Cars Program is good for Arizona’s air quality, good for public health, and good for consumers.”
Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director for the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club added, “A Clean Car program is an important step forward in cleaning up our air and reducing the emissions that contribute to global climate change. We must act now to address this serious issue. Our children and their children will all breathe a little easier.”
According to public health and environmental advocates, it makes sense that the Clean Cars Program would emerge as a top policy option for Arizona since transportation-related emissions are responsible for approximately 39 percent of our state’s global warming pollution. Cars and light trucks—such as pickups, minivans and SUVs—are the most important sources of global warming pollution within the transportation sector, responsible for approximately 60 percent of all emissions from transportation and more than one-fifth of Arizona’s total emissions of global warming pollution. Automobiles are major contributors to smog and vehicle exhaust contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone, an air pollutant that affects public health conditions such as asthma and lung disease.
Three years ago, Governor Napolitano established the Climate Change Advisory Group (CCAG), led by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, to recommend policy options to make a dent in pollution from the transportation, electricity and other sectors responsible for global warming emissions in Arizona. Diverse stakeholders including representatives from leading Arizona utilities, businesses, public health, environmental groups and others embraced the Clean Cars Program and unanimously included it in their CCAG report to the governor as one of the most significant policy opportunities to reduce global warming pollution in our state. The governor responded by issuing an Executive Order which included the Clean Cars Program and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality recently reacted by initiating a rulemaking that includes tonight’s public hearing. 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 other states, over a third of the U.S. market, that have adopted the Clean Cars Program.
Paul Hughes, Manager, Low-Emission Vehicle Implementation Section, Mobile Source Control Division of the California Air Resources Board stated, “Global warming is a reality and the time to act is now. As a member of the Western Climate Initiative, Arizona, along with California and five other western states and two Canadian provinces, has committed to being part of the solution. By joining with California and the twelve other states that have adopted California’s program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, Arizona reaffirms this commitment. Together, we can make a real contribution in the fight against global warming.”
In addition to those involved in Arizona’s stakeholder process, over 75 small business owners, religious decision makers, children and senior citizen organizations and others have added their support to putting cleaner cars on our roads. Through door-to-door and other citizen outreach efforts, events at the community level and at Arizona universities, and through statewide gatherings, thousands of concerned citizens have written letters, signed postcards and sent emails to show their appreciation for the advancement of the Clean Cars Program and to encourage favorable completion of the necessary process so Arizona can put cleaner cars on the road.
Advocates praised the governor and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for their efforts thus far and joined with other Arizonans to urge them to favorably move the Clean Cars Program forward to bring cleaner cars to our roads.
- 30 –
More information on the Clean Cars Program can be found at www.arizonapirg.org
