California, Acting Globally

The state Legislature can strike a modest, reasonable blow against global warming by passing the final version of a program for cutting emissions of carbon dioxide from autos, pickups and sport utility vehicles. Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas implicated in global warming.

AB 1058, by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), passed the Assembly earlier and won approval in the Senate last week. Now it’s back to the Assembly for ratification of Senate amendments as early as today. Next stop: Gov. Gray Davis, for his signature.

But it will be a fight to get it to Davis.

The auto industry has waged a costly Chicken Little campaign of misinformation. The sky will fall, the automobile makers say, if this bill ever becomes law and the bureaucrats of the California Air Resources Board are allowed to dictate what sort of vehicles we can drive.

This is the same campaign the industry waged against seat belts, air bags and smog controls. They were wrong then and are wrong now. European car makers already are embarked on a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. AB 1058 does not require any controls until the 2009 model year and specifies that they must be economically and technologically feasible and cause no harm to California business or dramatic increase in the cost of vehicles.

The “bureaucrats” bemoaned by the propagandists are the same experts who pioneered auto emission controls over decades--controls that have cleaned up the state’s air and been adopted worldwide. The new standards would be subject to an automatic yearlong review by the Legislature.

California will not solve the problem of greenhouse gases and global warming by itself. But Washington has abdicated its responsibility in this area and California has an opportunity to take the lead. The Assembly should chase away the Chicken Littles and vote yes.