Global Warming In the News

New Mexicans could save nearly 214 billion gallons of gas and help reduce global warming if the state joins the Clean Cars Program, according to a report released this morning by Environment New Mexico.

The Clean Cars Program is a pollution reducing initiative that has been adopted in 12 states.

If adopted here, it would mandate that a majority of cars and trucks sold in New Mexico would meet California air pollution standards, which are stricter than federal Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Under federal law, states can either use EPA standards or California standards for vehicle emissions.

The report, issued by Environment New Mexico, examines the economic impact if the state joins the program.

While the program could increase the cost of some cars and trucks by between $300 and $1,000, those costs would be offset by the amount of gasoline saved, said the report's author, Lauren Ketcham.

"It would result in reduced air pollution, particularly smog," Ketcham said. "And there's no evidence that the current Clean Cars Program has increased the cost of cars in other states."

The burden of cars meeting the new air emissions standards would fall on the manufacturers, rather than consumers, she said.

"To consumers there would probably be no real visible difference," Ketcham said.

But Charles Henson, president of the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association, says he sees some problems with the new regulations - one major one being that by adopting them, the state will turn over control of its vehicle emissions standards to the state of California.

"We certainly want clean air for New Mexico," Henson said. "But the California Air Resource Board, they're the governing body for all decisions in the California standard. That means we'll be governed by an entity where we have no government representation."

The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board and the state Environmental Improvement Board will take comment from experts and the public and vote on the issue during the week of Nov. 26.

If approved, the regulations would go into effect 30 days from the vote, but car companies would have until 2010 - which is the 2011 model year - to meet the standards, said Margaret Nieto, control strategies supervisor for the Air Quality Control Board.

"We've gotten hundreds of e-mails supporting this since we held a public open house on October 17," Nieto said.

Car manufacturers, who will have to alter the mix of cars and trucks they supply to New Mexico, have opposed the issue so far, Nieto said.

The initiative is supported by Gov. Bill Richardson and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez.

If adopted, the program could save New Mexico consumers about $623 million each year in gasoline, Ketcham said. And people could choose from more than 25 models of clean vehicles that are sold in the 12 Clean Cars states.

"In the process it would reduce smog forming and toxic emissions linked to air pollution and illnesses such as asthma and cardio vascular disease," Ketcham said.

Henson argued the move would reduce the selection of vehicles available in New Mexico - particularly the selection of trucks, he said.

"In California, where this is established, the mix of cars and trucks are about 50-50," Henson said. "In New Mexico we're closer to 35-65 car to truck ratio. Mathematics tells us this is going to limit the selection."

Low emissions for trucks limit the performance, which could cause problems for rural areas of the state, Henson said.

"You can't carry a load of hay behind a small sub-compact hybrid," Henson said.

His group would prefer that the state stay with EPA regulations, and that any changes be made uniformly on the federal level.

If New Mexico adopts the standards, he'd like to see the timeframe for implementation moved back to 2015, at which point he believes manufacturers will have settled on some sort of universal low emissions standards, Henson said.

Still, Ketcham said she thinks it's likely the initiative will pass as it is, because it has received a lot of support.

"New Mexico could be lucky state number 13 in this program," Ketcham said.