The Washington Post reports the Maryland House of Delegates approved a measure yesterday to slash auto emissions that are part of global warming pollution. The state senate will likely approve the measure as well and Governor O’Malley is poised to sign it into law. Maryland will join 12 other states with similar laws: New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and Pennsylvania.
I don’t see Virginia on that list.
Maryland’s stricter standards for auto emissions would take effect in 2010 and raise fuel efficiency to 43 miles per gallon. Using less fuel means creating less emissions thus lessening global warming pollution. Sounds like a good thing, right?
Not if you’re a car manufacturer, apparently. They claim the new law “would raise prices and reduce choices for consumers — to make way for more fuel-efficient cars, fewer sport-utility and other large vehicles would be on the market.”
OH CRY ME A RIVER! You mean fat cats wouldn’t be able to afford more SUVs and “other large vehicles” that use more gas in a week than my 2005 Civic uses in a month? Imagine your highways and parking lots free of SUVs! You’d be able to see oncoming traffic when you back out of a parking space, your chances of surviving a crash would increase, gas prices might actually go down if DEMAND decreases … it’s a beautiful thing.
GO MARYLAND!
s.
Filed under: global climate change
