You mean the peddle-electric hybrid?
Bwaaahahahahaha!
I wonder if they have a folding, briefcase model, for commuters?LOL
Posted on 04/26/2005 2:33:49 PM PDT by crazyhorse691
SALEM -- Gov. Ted Kulongoski, as part of his effort to attack global warming, wants to make Oregon the 10th state to adopt California's tougher auto emission standards.
The governor has decided to bypass the Legislature and will form a task force to figure out how to adopt the standards, which would also raise fuel efficiency.
His spokeswoman, Holly Armstrong, said Monday that Kulongoski expects to have the rules in place by year's end.
"He has long been committed to adopting these standards," said Armstrong. "It's always been about how to do this, not whether to do this."
The new standards, which would take effect in the 2009 model year, would also lead to their enactment in Washington. The Legislature there last week agreed to adopt the California rules -- but it said they would only go into effect if Oregon followed suit.
The auto industry opposes the California standards because it will cost more to build cars that pollute less and get better gas mileage. Eventually, the price of new cars could rise by more than $1,000 a year by 2016, according to a report by the Governor's Advisory Group on Global Warming. But much, if not all, of the increase could be offset by fuel savings.
The report also says that it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 18 percent by 2020 and 28 percent by 2030. Vehicles currently produce about one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon, the report said.
Auto manufacturers say the standards could be more costly and would reduce the number of vehicles available, particularly diesel cars.
California has long had tougher standards to combat air pollution. Now it is implementing new rules to reduce greenhouse gases. The auto industry is attacking those latter rules in court, saying the states are exceeding their authority to regulate vehicle standards.
Kulongoski announced formation of the task force earlier this month but did not provide any specifics on its work. Now he wants to move ahead with administrative rules, rather than waiting on legislation to enact the emission standards. "We're going to move forward with it," he told The New York Times in an interview published Saturday. "It's going to be this year, I would expect."
The governor took Monday off and wasn't available for direct comment.
Armstrong said Kulongoski thinks Oregon could make an important contribution to curbing greenhouse emissions and that he wanted to act in concert with the other West Coast states. "It's important regionally," she said.
Jeff Allen, executive director of the Oregon Environmental Council and a member of the global warming advisory group, praised the governor's stand.
"It's the clearest statement and it's the first with an explicit timeline" for adopting the California standards, Allen said. "So it's great news."
Allen said that adding Oregon and Washington to the states with tougher emission standards will help prod the federal government to tighten its standards -- and also help persuade automakers to simply sell cleaner cars throughout the country. Canada is also moving toward tougher emission rules, Allen noted.
The other states with the tougher standards are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Paul Cosgrove, a lobbyist representing auto manufacturers, said Kulongoski's decision to adopt the standards administratively "is tantamount to an admission he can't pass it in the Legislature."
"I think a change that dramatic deserves to be brought into the legislative process," he said. "We will probably work with like-minded individuals to do what we can to slow it down or stop it."
Sen. Charlie Ringo, D-Beaverton, is sponsoring a measure, Senate Bill 344, that would implement the California standards in Oregon. So far, the bill has not moved out of committee.
"I don't care how we get there," he said. "As long as we adopt cleaner vehicle emissions, that's the goal for me."
The push to adopt the California standards in Oregon first came in December when the Governor's Advisory Group on Global Warming included them among a number of steps the state should take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Other steps included additional efforts to make buildings more energy efficient and to encourage the greater use of alternative energy. The report also called for harvesting crops that could be used as biofuels to power vehicles.
Jeff Mapes: 503-221-8209; jeffmapes@news.oregonian.com
The governor has decided to bypass the Legislature and will form a task force to figure out how to adopt the standards, which would also raise fuel efficiency.
It really sucks when this so-called "representative government" the country was founded on keeps forgetting the People...
another reason to vote this bum out of office in 06... IU was just mgoing to cut off my cadilac converter to really piss off the enviromentalist
Seriously, can he really get away with this.
We are getting close to the point were the left will start acting on the global warming propaganda. The GOP will regret that it never made an honest, principled response to this malarkey.
Of course, to do so would require actually calling the Democrats out on what their real game is.
BTW the CA idiot legislature passes idiotic laws but they many times have had to repeal/rethink some of these laws.
It was a CA law that said by 2005(ten years out at the lime) that at least 10% of all cars sold in CA had to be ZERO ommisions. So where's those cars? They don't exist, LOL.
McCain plans to lead the way, UGH.
If we can keep the feds out of it, I guess it just means more business for red states. Certainly the industrial Midwest is enjoying a lot of flight from the New England/New York area.
They are talking about putting a 10% surcharge on LLCs in NYS. They will leave in herds. 10% is about all the profit they make.
The LLCs in NYS are mostly in the information economy, all they need are internet connections and access to good airports. It might just drive the final nail in the NYC economy. I myself am thinking very hard about reloating out of the East and West coasts. So many of the sales now are overseas in developing economies. You can be based almost anywhere and still do business, just so long as you can afford to fly to the customer from time . It will become interesting if that sector goes out of the blue states. What then for them?
And remember, those are Republicans up there in the statehouse.
What sort of idiots slap a 10% charge out of the blue on business and then expect them to stay in business? Well, the sort of idiot that has never had to manage a business, that is what sort.
Can I get me one of them for my Yugo?
Wonder why when a Democrat proposes something unpopular the media seldom identifies him as a Democrat?
This will ban the new generation of clean diesel automobiles and result in more fuel being wasted.
You mean the peddle-electric hybrid?
Bwaaahahahahaha!
I wonder if they have a folding, briefcase model, for commuters?LOL
Or, there is always the stripped down model for the economy concious:
Roger that ~ Kulongoski is a misinformed jerk!
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We really need to get a pro-life Republican in the governor's office in Oregon!
You need two of those for a Yugo.
Maybe it's a cardiac converter. ;)
We need a common sense conservative governor that follows the Constitution and not the brain-dead, lunatic-left, tree huggin' root suckers!
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