California wants you to consider greenhouse gas emissions when you buy your next new car. And to help you do that, state officials revised their mandatory environmental performance label for all 2009 model-year cars. All new vehicles must display the modified sticker by January 1, but some could appear on cars right away.
Next to the traditional "Smog Score," there's now a "Global Warming Score." Both show scales of 1 to 10 and display where a particular vehicle stands on the scale. The higher the score, the cleaner the vehicle—and the scales adjust so that the average across all new cars each year is exactly 5. The scales incorporate all classes of consumer vehicles, from rare zero-emission electric cars to the heaviest SUVs and vans.
The new Global Warming Score reflects the emissions of greenhouse gases from the vehicle's operation and the production of fuel to power it. The older Smog Score looks at smog-forming emissions just from operating the vehicle, including the three "criteria emissions" that have been regulated by law for 35 years: carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx).
A car's Global Warming Score might well differ from its Smog Score. One that's exceptionally economical with fuel—emitting relatively little CO2, the main greenhouse gas—but produces close to the maximum permitted criteria pollutants, for example, would be relatively "dirtier" than its Global Warming Score.
The state's goal is simply to provide information to new-car buyers. "Consumer choice is an especially powerful tool in our fight against climate change," said Mary Nichols, chair of the powerful California Air Resources Board. The stickers also point consumers to a state website, DriveClean.org, that highlights the cleanest vehicles on the market.
But educating consumers can be a slow process. The new stickers are "the government's and special-interest groups' way of trying to get the public interested" in greenhouse-gas emissions, said Aaron Bragman, an auto research analyst at Global Insights in Troy, Michigan.
"It's not a response to a public outcry for such information," Bragman told HybridCars.com. "While it's common in Europe to have greenhouse-gas emissions information on vehicle stickers, those consumers are taxed on the vehicle's emissions, so it's much more relevant." In the end, Bragman concluded, "Americans are still far more interested in the MPG rating than the CO2 output" of any given vehicle in a showroom.
At the moment, the "green sticker" rule applies only to cars sold within California, which has the largest car market of any single state. As with many other regulations, including limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, California has taken the lead in rulemaking.
Last December's energy bill requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to create a rating system so consumers can easily compare fuel economy, alternative fuel capability, exhaust emissions, and greenhouse-gas impact "at the point of purchase." Thus far, no rules on the rating system have emerged from the EPA.
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