Filed under: Legislation and Policy, Green Daily
2009 model cars in California to get greenhouse gas stickers
Since the 1970s, automakers selling cars in the United States have published EPA certified fuel efficiency numbers on the window sticker of all new cars. For 2009, new car buyers in California will get a new sticker to contend with on their cars. The California Air Resources Board has mandated a new sticker that gives each car a 1-10 rating for smog related emissions and greenhouse gas emissions. Cars sold in California have already had a smog index label for a decade. The new sticker adds greenhouse gases with both scores being calculated based on data provided by manufacturers to the EPA. Average cars will get a rating of five with cleaner cars such as the Honda Civic hybrid or Prius getting a 9 while thirstier vehicles get lower scores. All new vehicles sold in California after Jan, 1 2009 will need the new label although 2009 models appearing soon are expected to start carrying it.
[Source: MSNBC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
alcatholic 5:46PM (6/26/2008)
OK, a blog post a couple of weeks ago talked about the grams of CO2 per KM label that cars in Europe get. I wish California would include that info on the label. Pretty straightforward and clear cut numbers like that I think are best.
Reply
alcatholic 5:50PM (6/26/2008)
Here's the link to the blog post that explains Spain's vehicle purchase tax indexed to vehicle CO2 emissions.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/06/11/sales-of-high-polluting-cars-keep-plummeting-in-spain/
Reply
alcatholic 5:51PM (6/26/2008)
Here's the link to the blog post that explains Spain's vehicle purchase tax indexed to vehicle CO2 emissions.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/06/11/sales-of-high-polluting-cars-keep-plummeting-in-spain/
Reply
Karkus 6:48PM (6/26/2008)
We Americans couldn't possibly be burdened with actual numbers, especially when their labeled with foreign units like grams/100 kilometers.
Are these the same scores as are available on the EPA site?
Reply
alcatholic 8:17PM (6/26/2008)
Karkus, I actually don't know what numbers the EPA posts about car emissions. Could you give me a link?
Reply
Matt 10:09PM (6/26/2008)
This kind of information and increased consumer education is sorely needed. I bet 95+% of the population is confused about (or blissfully ignorant of) smog vs CO2 pollution. Lawn equipment and many motorcycles which don't have fuel injection and catalytic converters don't use much gas (and therefore don't emit a lot of CO2), but they emit significantly more smog emissions than modern cars which have 10-100x the engine displacement. Conversely, a large SUV can be claimed to be "clean" from a pollution perspective with respect to the traditional smog pollutants, but its CO2 emissions are high because that's directly related to fuel consumption.
The two types of pollution are also key in the gas vs diesel debate.
Kudos to CARB for differentiating and rating the two.
Reply
ed 6:10AM (6/27/2008)
Hmmmm.
"CO2 pollution". What complete bunk.
Frankly when people near me start talking about "CO2 pollution" I simply laugh at them.
Reply
boneheadotto 9:46AM (6/27/2008)
Is is just me or are these scales backwards. I saw them on fueleconomy.gov and they struck me as confusing. Whats better global warming of 3 or 7. Seems to me that i want to globally warm the planet less and therefore the smaller number is better. Same with smog, i want to release less smog. But these scales are setup to where 10 is best and 1 worst. seems backwards to me.
Reply
Karkus 11:06AM (6/27/2008)
alcatholic-
fueleconomy.gov gives each car an "EPA Air Pollution Score" from 1 to 10 (10 is best) and a Carbon Footprint in tons of CO2 per year.
So I was wondering if the Cali SMOG score is the same as the EPA Air Pollution Score.
Reply
mroverlord 5:34PM (6/27/2008)
Ah yes, CARB, finding new and inventive ways to justify their tax budget.
Reply