Advocates of a move to adopt California's stringent automobile emissions standards didn't dream up barren Cascade Mountain ski slopes and green daffodil stalks now shooting up around Puget Sound to help make their case.
TACOMA, Washington — Advocates of a move to adopt California's stringent automobile emissions standards didn't dream up barren Cascade Mountain ski slopes and green daffodil stalks now shooting up around Puget Sound to help make their case.
But the unseasonably mild winter weather fits into a pattern of climate change already evident here, one likely to affect the region even more in the future, climatologists say.
The head of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and a coalition of environmental activists are urging the Legislature to do something about it by making Washington the eighth state to copy California's auto emission standards.
So far, the "Cleaner Cars -- Cleaner Air" bills are the fastest moving environmental measures in the Legislature, said Sen. Eric Poulsen (D-Seattle), chairman of the Senate Water, Energy and Environment Committee. The goal is to limit Washington's contribution to the excess greenhouse gases blamed for climate change and reduce other harmful emissions that cause cancer and respiratory ailments.
"We'll be following the lead of that wild-eyed liberal Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has become a real champion for reducing pollution by tackling auto emissions," said Poulsen, who believes the Republican California governor's approach is correct.
California and the seven Northeastern states that have adopted similar standards account for about 25 percent of the U.S. auto market. Similar proposals are pending in North Carolina, Illinois and Oregon. Canada, with a population nearly that of California, is also considering similar limits.
Trade organizations representing automobile manufacturers and dealers say the move is unnecessary and costly. Vicki Giles Fabre, executive vice president of the Washington State Auto Dealers Association, said her members fear that the California emission standard would put them at a competitive disadvantage with out-of-state dealers.
Despite the variety of cars and trucks sold in California, dealers are troubled by worries that manufacturers would no longer deliver the best-selling models to Washington. "People want to buy bigger cars and trucks," she said.
The legislation would require manufacturers to reduce average emissions for new cars, pickups and sport utility vehicles. To do so, automakers would employ new engine, transmission and air-conditioning technologies already integral to many California models, advocates said.
The change would apply to vehicles manufactured for the 2009 model year. It would not affect commercial vehicles or pickups built to carry more than 2,500 pounds.
Advocates say the requirement would force manufacturers to deliver fuel-efficient vehicles like the ones sold in California, which would save money at the gas pumps.
Dennis McLerran, executive director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and one of the proposal's leading advocates, says the proposed limit is important to the Puget Sound area because cars and trucks are the source of most of the greenhouse gas people produce in Washington. The problem is primarily excess carbon dioxide, a combustion byproduct.
Most scientists blame human activity for a surplus of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that has altered the global climate.
The Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that goes into effect Wednesday, requires participating industrialized countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But the United States has not signed the agreement.
"People are frustrated there's not a federal policy around climate change," McLerran said.
In Washington, increasingly warm winters over the past few decades have reduced the Cascade Mountain snowpack that holds water for hydropower, municipal supplies, farming and fish.
Snowpack declined by half between 1950 and 1995. An additional 59 percent drop is expected by 2050, according to state climatologist Philip Mote, a University of Washington research scientist.
"There's no way to completely avoid this, but there is a way to keep our feet off the accelerator," said K.C. Golden of Climate Solutions, an activist group that is among the leading proponents of the so-called clean-car bills.
In the global context, Washington's contribution to the greenhouse gas problem is small. But advocates of the California program say limits in Washington would bolster similar efforts around the country and elsewhere.
"We can't do it by ourselves, but the rest of the world can't have it without us," Golden said.
Both of Washington's California-style emissions bills were introduced by Democrats, who control the Legislature for the first time since 2002. The measures also enjoy support from some Republicans, including Sens. Dan Swecker of Rochester, Bob Oke of Port Orchard and Luke Esser of Bellevue. In the House, the Republican caucus is not expected to take a stand, a staff member said.
However, House Minority Leader Bruce Chandler (R-Granger) said he doesn't believe the measures would improve air quality enough to justify likely sticker price increases to consumers.
If Washington adopts California's auto emission rules, the result isn't likely to be dramatic or immediate.
But by 2020, it could cut the volume of greenhouse gases produced by regulated vehicles in the Puget Sound region by 17 percent, according to a climate change report prepared for the clean air agency.
New rules adopted in September by the California Air Resources Board require automakers to reduce average greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2016.
Automakers have sued to block the additional restrictions, which won't become effective until 2009.
But McLerran and other advocates say even if the courts side with the manufacturers and throw out added requirements, the existing California emissions standard would reduce air pollution in Washington. By 2020, it would lower by 20 percent the amount of benzene, formaldehyde and other so-called volatile organic compounds emitted from new cars.
They are the kinds of airborne poisons that make the risk of cancer among Puget Sound residents among the highest in the United States, according to the clean air agency.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents nine domestic and foreign car companies, leads the charge against the legislation. Eron Shosteck, the trade group's director of communications, rejects the notion that the new standards would improve Washington's air quality.
Moreover, he said, the proposed rules would boost the cost of new cars by $3,000 or more and limit the models sold in Washington.
As it is, California vehicles don't cost much more than new vehicles sold in Washington, Shosteck said. That's because manufacturers have spread the cost of innovation to vehicles sold outside California. But automakers are no longer willing to do that, he said.
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