Pollution/Smog Check

Stop AB1493—the CA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Bill

Assembly Bill 1493, now sitting on Governor Davis’ desk waiting for his signature or veto, will do nothing to improve the environment and will harm the health (by diverting money from worthwhile causes) and pocketbook of all Californians. Please join the fight and convince Davis to veto it and spare us this insult.

Smog Check II

California’s Smog Check II program is supposed to clean up the air by mandating that autos are inspected for excessive smog emissions on a regular basis. But the procedures used unfairly target only a portion of the cars on the road, are arbitrary in nature, and costs Calif. car owners far more money than is warranted.

Efficiency

Electric cars aren’t zero-emissions

The electricity used to charge the batteries of an electric car is produced by the same plants that power your home, and these use burn natural gas, coal, and oil. The only time electric cars don’t pollute is when their electricity comes from nuclear power plants or hydro power from dammed rivers

Fuel economy standards kill thousands each year

Heavier cars are safer—as has been shown by several different scientific reports over the past decade. [Harvard/Brookings, National Academy of Sciences]

Gasoline

MTBE & Reformulated Gas—Expensive, Poisonous and Inefficient

There are three main reasons behind the gasoline being more expensive in California (and the San Francisco Bay Area in particular):

1. The California Air Resources Board mandates that we use a formulation unique to the state, making it difficult for gasoline from outside the state to be sold here, keeping the supply tight and prices high.
2. The state and federal mandates to rip up all underground fuel storage tanks and replace them (even if they aren’t leaking!) at a cost of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars (when U.C. Berkeley scientists said it wasn’t necessary to remove any of them). This shut down 10,000 small independent gas stations in California, leaving the market in control of the big oil companies, who were then free to raise prices.
3. The federal mandate to include oxygenates (MTBE or ethanol) in gasoline. Both of these additives add cost to gasoline without providing any benefit to the environment—the stated goal of mandating them in the first place. This substance is known to be poisonous, does not significantly improve pollution, and is responsible for about 10 cents of the cost of gasoline in California. It doesn’t work and costs us more, so we must have it removed. Read more about the problems with MTBE.

These fraudulent acts need to be reversed in order to give us fair pricing back. We’ll take it one step at a time.

It’s time for us voters to unite and convince the state legislature to fix these serious flaws in California’s gasoline supply and distribution system. The two main problems are the forced addition of MTBE (which was supposed to reduce pollution, but is known to be poisonous and doesn’t really provide much benefit) and the unfair trade practices that result in us having the most expensive gas in the nation.

In addition to the above issues, the oil companies enforce rules that prevent dealerships from buying gasoline on the free market. This needs to be stopped as well.

Safety

Fuel economy standards kill thousands each year

Heavier cars are safer—as has been shown by several different scientific reports over the past decade. [Harvard/Brookings, National Academy of Sciences]