California leads the nation in setting stringent emission standards and now seeks to specifically reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Seung-Yeon Choi and Cally Berg of The Paly Voice present the pros and cons of this new legislation.
Pro
Seung-Yeon Choi
President Barack Obama announced his support for California and 13 other states setting stricter automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards to directly combat global warming last Monday. In an energy-dependent, yet energy-deficient society, immediate governmental regulation on the automobile fuel industry is essential for mitigating environmental harms.
Under the newly passed waiver of the Clean Air Act, Californian automakers will be required to reduce emissions by one third by 2016, four years before the national goal. As the leader of the green frontier, California’s success with the waiver will encourage other states to set realistic goals to protect the environment. Relying merely on the federal government’s sparse regulations on fuel efficiency has only led to years of stagnation. In order to prevent history from repeating itself, individual states with the capacity should be able to devise their own regulations to ensure continued progress.
Regulating the automobile industry could help eliminate nearly one third of greenhouse gases in California and about 16 percent of U.S. global warming pollution, according to the Clean Cars Campaign organization. According to a