Jan 26 2009
Eating Green Ideas
It’s Monday, and Obama’s green plan has begun. His first move was to sign a memorandum for the EPA to look at California’s application for tighter auto and fuel efficiency laws, a move that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, at least in sunny California. The Bush administration rejected the move previously, siding with the auto industry, saying that it would be too confusing to have to create cars for two different sets of emissions codes. Republican George Voinovich, the Senator from Ohio, leads the opposition today arguing that it is unfair to have any more expectations on an already failing auto industry. Isn’t the GOP in favor of state’s rights?
If California is able to raise the bar on their standards, at least 17 states are expected to follow. Once again, the west coast is leading the way to a more sustainable future. And is clean air such a bad idea? A study that came out last week concluded that American’s can expect another five months of life on average due to the efforts of the Clean Air Act over the past thirty years. And wait - there’s more. Obama also said that he wants the average fuel economy for both cars and trucks to be raised to 35 miles/gallon by 2020. If the auto industry is able to do this, we would use about 10% less oil, the equivalent of 2 million barrels a day.
So where’s the too good to be true part of President Obama’s green efforts? The will of the rest. With the auto industry complaining about making the effort, claiming that they already make fuel efficient cars, how are we going to make any progress? With people still debating over whether global warming is real or not, how can we step beyond an argument and into action?
The potential $825 billion stimulus package is loaded with money for research and development into all arenas of energy efficiency. Although the whole concept of spending so much money has all of us a little nervous, flipping through our thinning wallets, it is an investment in our future. If we all took the time to research the energy and greenhouse gas dilemmas, we may all come together, unified, and agree that its an investment we can’t afford not to make.
Great article! The American people really need to start paying attention to this one as the sooner we start expecting more gas mileage out of our cars the sooner we move forward. The earth is not going to last long with the world’s current rate of abuse. I fear there is no going back so we have to minimize the impact we have already made!