As the new home of RIPIRG's environmental work, Environment Rhode Island can be contacted regarding this news release.
PROVIDENCE—Environmental and public interest groups on October 13 applauded
Gov. Carcieri’s announcement of new global warming pollution standards
for all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in Rhode Island. Personal cars,
trucks and SUVs currently account for over a quarter of Rhode Island’s
total global warming emissions. The new standards are expected to
create annual emission reductions of over 1 million tons by 2020.
Last
year Gov. Carcieri finalized rules that brought the California Clean
Cars Standard to Rhode Island to reduce air pollution and put more
clean cars, like hybrids, on the road. Since then California has
updated their standards to include the harmful pollutants that cause
global warming. Six other Northeastern states have already committed to
following California’s lead.
The
announcement drew praise from the coalition of public interest groups
and environmentalists who have been advocating for the updated
standards.
“Today’s
announcement is a major step towards reducing global warming emissions
in Rhode Island,” said Matt Auten, advocate with the Rhode Island
Public Interest Research Group (RIPIRG). “These new standards will
reduce global warming pollution, help protect public health and benefit
consumers at the gas pump. This is a win-win decision for Rhode
Islanders. We thank Gov. Carcieri for taking advantage of this
opportunity.”
“Gov.
Carcieri is standing up for the environment and the Rhode Island
consumer by making this decision,” said Cynthia Giles, director of the
Rhode Island office of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF). “The
recent hurricanes have made us all painfully aware of the need to
reduce global warming. We congratulate Gov. Carcieri for adopting this
policy to reduce global warming gasses and save Rhode Islanders money
at the pump.”
“Since
our leaders in Washington are reluctant to take action on global
warming pollution, the actions that Rhode Island is taking to clean up
cars is especially important," said Chris Wilhite , campaign organizer
for Clean Water Action. “We are glad that Gov. Carcieri heard the
message of broad public support for cleaner cars in Rhode Island and
decided to take this key step.”
In
2001, the New England governors agreed to a set of regional emission
reduction goals to combat global warming. The coalition is working to
ensure that the New England governors implement the Climate Change
Action Plans to reach their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to
10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Since 2001, the regional
agreement has propelled New England states, including Rhode Island, to
the forefront of the fight against global warming.
The
standards are supported by the Rhode Island Climate Coalition, a
coalition of 75 state and local environmental, public health, labor and
religious organizations concerned about the drastic effects of global
warming in the Northeast.
Once
the new standards are put in place, Rhode Island can expect emissions
reductions of about 30 percent from all new cars and trucks sold in the
Ocean State over the next decade and beginning in 2009. To keep pace
with other states in the Northeast, the Rhode Island Department of
Environmental Management will need to develop rules to govern the
program by the end of the year.
Transportation
is the largest single source of global warming pollution in Rhode
Island and the fastest growing. Between 1990 and 2003 the number of
vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in Rhode Island increased from 7.4 billion
miles to 8.4 billion miles annually (about 23 million miles a day), a
14 percent increase. This increase in miles traveled coupled with
stagnating fuel-economy standards has made transportation the fastest
growing source of global warming emissions in Rhode Island.
The
new program will be the largest proactive step that Rhode Island has
taken to reduce global warming emissions to date, eliminating about 1
million tons of global warming pollution a year by 2020.
This
summer, RIPIRG helped build support for today’s announcement by talking
to over 20,000 Rhode Islanders in face-to-face conversations on
doorsteps and on busy street corners about cars and global warming and
distributing over 5,000 pieces of educational literature. RIPIRG also
collected over 2,300 petition signatures in support of the program.
Updating
the Clean Cars Standard is projected to benefit the Rhode Island
economy, because the standards will create modest operating cost
savings in new car models, meaning that consumers will be able to spend
more money to spend in the local economy instead of at the gas pump.
Technologies
to reduce global warming gasses are already being used in some models
and can be used on any car model. Despite the new rules all vehicle
models will remain available to consumers.
Scientists
project that average temperatures in Rhode Island could increase two to
10 degrees over the next century if no action is taken to reduce global
warming emissions. In Rhode Island global warming could lead to hotter
and more intense summer smog seasons, more intense storms and
hurricanes, increased coastal flooding and beach erosion, and
ecological changes in Narragansett Bay.
