GM was in some hot water after publishing this ad in a college newspaper (that quickly went viral).

(ad courtesy of BikePortland.org)

With a tag line of “Stop pedaling – start driving,” the ad attempted to ‘dis’ biking.  The companion ad went after walking.

What drove GM to even consider ads that would urge students to stop pedaling and start driving?  We know they sell cars. We even know that, thanks to a bailout with tax payer dollars GM is still GM, and thanks to the Obama Administration, their cars will use less and less oil and spew out less global warming pollution.

Maybe GM has figured out that reality does suck if you are trying to market cars to a generation that might be thinking about better transportation options.  Oil-free transportation is a winner. (Giant Bikes showed as much in their response to the GM ad).

GM has since apologized for the ad via twitter and elsewhere and withdrew it.

GM clearly hit a raw nerve trying to pedal oil addiction to a generation that may be more interested in being oil-free.  But maybe this is why GM ran the ads in the first place. Check out this tidbit from Streetsblog:

We’re facing a profound generational shift and, according to Martin: “The dynamic is aligning with transit big time.”

Gen Y is inclined to transit, too. “Gen Y is much less car centric than other generations,” Martin pointed out. Compared to their elders, folks born between 1982 and 1994 are less eager to get a drivers license, less inclined to purchase a car and less likely to view automobile ownership as a right of passage to adulthood. Some would argue the trend is based on economic need, the result of student loan debt and a tough job market. “I think it’s deeper than that,” Martin said. “Gen Y is hyper connected. They are literally digital natives… Eighty-eight percent want to live in urban settings because they can be hyper-connected.” Gen Y isn’t looking for a dream home; they’re looking for a dream lifestyle and that includes walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented neighborhoods.

I am sure GM has done its own market research.  Walking and biking are in and neighborhoods with shopping, restaurants and other attractions are in.  Bike shares are taking off in DC, Boston, Chicago and other cities.  Car shares make it easier to get a car when you need it (and choices of cars to drive). Having the latest smartphone or tablet is much less expensive than a car and much more fun anyway.

Maybe we should take GM’s ads as a sign that walking and biking are winning.  Now is time for the transportation dollars to follow.

Anyone feel like saving more than $44 billion? Or saving 23 billion gallons of oil? Today the Sierra Club, as part of the Go 60mpg Coalition, announced both the national and state household, oil and pollution savings from raising fuel efficiency standards for new cars and light trucks to 54.5 mpg and setting a carbon pollution standard of 163 grams per mile in 2025.

And that’s how good it gets: These standards, which will be proposed in November by the Obama Administration, will save Americans more than $44 billion in 2030 alone, save 23 billion gallons of oil in 2030 and reduce heat-trapping carbon pollution by 280 million metric tons.

These carbon pollution savings are the equivalent of having 40 million fewer vehicles on the road in that year.  If you prefer to think about shutting down dirty coal fired power plants, it’s equivalent to shutting down 72 of them for a year.

We announced this data today at a press conference at a Rhode Island Chevy dealership with a dealer who believes that more fuel efficient cars including the new Volt will be the key to helping his dealership thrive. Not only do these standards keep money in our pockets, but it also bodes well for the car dealers who are watching the fuel efficient cars fly off their lots.

Our colleagues at the Union of Concerned Scientists and Natural Resources Defense Council broke down the oil, dollar and pollution savings state-by-state.  You can check out how much you would save with these standards, but here’s a taste.

Rhode Islanders, for example, would keep $148 million dollars in the ecnomy rather than spending it on oil.  Each household would save a net of $330 per year (here net means that the savings account for the cost of fuel saving technology that is on a new car).  To top it off, Rhode Islanders would save 76 million gallons of gasoline and help keep 900 million metric tons of global warming pollution out of the atmosphere.

As noted above these standards are not final – but promise great benefits.  We’re calling on the Obama administration to avoid including loopholes and industry giveaways in the standards that would undermine consumer savings and pollution reductions.

Cars and trucks that use less gas are a win-win for our economy and our environment. The Obama administration’s new fuel efficiency standards ensure 15 years of continuous progress to help save Americans money at the gas pump, create jobs, curb life-threatening pollution, and help move our country beyond oil.

Perhaps it is only in DC that you can catch a snippet like this of a conversation between two people walking down the sidewalk:

“I am not against spending on infrastructure,” one says to the other.  “But we need to get rid of all of the regulations.”

This being DC, these two could be lobbyists or Congressional staffers to just two folks who just love to talk infrastructure and hate on regulations.

I, however, happened to be fresh from the morning’s Moving Planet event in Fairfax, VA where the Sierra Club’s Virginia Chapter, Smart Growth America, Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling, Labors’ International Union of North America, and 350.org called on Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to provide freedom of travel through funding transportation choices other than roads.

Attendees want funding for increased public transit, bike lanes, and sidewalks in order to help reduce congestion, reduce carbon pollution and move Northern Virginia beyond oil.

The event made clear that we can build infrastructure, but making it work and safe for all remains a challenge. In Northern Virginia, where congested roads are largely responsible for helping drive the Washington, DC, area to number one on the list of the most congested areas in the annual Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) mobility ranking.

Streetsblog points out that the TTI study is autocentric, focused on how fast a car can move down the road, not how much time a commuter could save by taking transit. And Streetsblog notes that solutions like bringing housing, transportation choices, jobs, and shopping closer together only gets a “shout out”:

Maybe your city is dense and friendly to pedestrians and bikes, so that it’s easy to glide past the automobile gridlock on your short commute to work. Or maybe transit provides an excellent and affordable alternative to traffic jams. None of that matters to TTI….TTI doesn’t bother to figure out how much time is saved if one avoids that congestion by taking transit, but they do examine how much time transit riders save drivers by taking vehicles off the road.

If there were no transit, the country’s drivers would be facing an additional 796 million hours of traffic delay. “Operational treatments” like ramp metering, traffic light timing, and removing crashed vehicles from the road have become much more effective in the last 20 years but still don’t come close to the savings provided by transit, saving about 40 percent as much as transit in terms of hours of delays, fuel, and costs.

These solutions got more than a shout out at Moving Planet – it was the point of the event.  And importantly, achieving the goals with better public transportation is creating jobs! Here are quotes from the Sierra Club’s press release for the event:

“As citizens we demand smarter solutions to transportation but we cannot get them unless we speak up.  And we as policy makers need you to lead us to the right solutions.”  Delegate Mark L. Keam, Virginia House of Delegates, 35th District.

“We should not be made dependent on our cars.  Most citizens express unqualified support for more transit, but it seems to be stalled at all levels of government.” Roger Diedrich, Transportation Chair, Sierra Club-Virginia Chapter.

“When we’re young or older we can’t or shouldn’t drive, we need choices in transportation.  Some folks; young, older and in between like to walk or bike to get around, they need to infrastructure to support these choices.”  Susan Stillman, bike rider and walker, Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling.

“Every community and every citizen deserves jobs, shops, schools, housing and transportation choices within easy reach. By joining together, the citizens of northern Virginia will demonstrate their commitment to creating great communities, supporting a thriving economy and protecting the environment.” Elisa Ortiz, Smart Growth America.

“Phase I of Dulles Rail has created thousands of new green jobs for construction and craft workers in Northern VA and the DC metro region. Not only are these jobs providing healthcare and a family-supporting wage, but the fruits of their labor will improve our air quality and help alleviate traffic by taking cars off the road. Most importantly, the project is on time and on budget and is an economic engine for the region at a time when new jobs are scarce.” Josh Collins, Labors’ International Union of North America.

The event speakers made clear – we need smart infrastructure to cut through traffic gridlock, create jobs, improve our everyday lives and move us beyond oil.

Here’s some good news – it seems that we are using 157,000 less barrels of gasoline every day this year as compared to last year.  And here’s the bad news: we are poised to spend a record $491 billion on gasoline this year.

There are many reasons why we are using less and paying more, though essentially, it boils down to the fact that globally, oil prices are up.  However, one way we can use less oil and actually not pay more is – drum roll – by biking and walking.

Biking and walking currently account for 12% of our trips, yet we spend less than 2% of federal transportation funding on infrastructure to make these trips safer or add the paths, trails, sidewalks and crosswalks we need.  Investments in walking and biking, under the federal program called Transportation Enhancements, help give people safe, clean, and convenient travel options that allow us to get around without Big Oil.

So, this year, while we are draining our bank accounts to spend $491 billion on gasoline (which keeps Big Oil happy) we’re investing only a tiny amount on safe walking and biking through our national transportation policy.  And it turns out, spending on biking and walking infrastructure actually helps create more jobs than spending on roads and highways!

Yet, one Senator is ready to hold up an entire bill about federal transportation spending over the small portion of funds in the bill dedicated to safe walking and biking.

Senator Coburn (R-OK) has tried to block dedicated funding for biking and walking before (and lost).  From Alaska to Tennessee, our members are weighing in with their Senators – letting them know about biking paths that have improved their neighborhoods and helped people get out of their cars.

Senator Coburn’s threat to hold up transportation spending over funding for walking and biking will unfold over the next 24 hours, but the fight to increase our transportation choices will continue in force on September 24 with Moving Planet actions across the country all sending the same strong message – it is time to move beyond fossil fuels — including gasoline.

Join us build the momentum we need to show that Americans want transportation choices and livable communities where walking and biking are safe.  Find out how you can get involved – plan your own event or sign up for an event near you – and join us on September 24th to get the planet moving beyond fossil fuels.

Sierra Club Nebraska is working to bring transportation choices to Omaha.  Just like many cities across the country, Omaha’s transportation system is largely designed to move people in cars.  Redesigning that system to make walking and biking safer, to create communities where people can live close to jobs, shops and fun is critical.

Our Chapter is inviting the public to join in a public meeting on September 15^th to help shape Omaha’s transportation future.  That future, will however, be influenced by decisions that need to be made in Washington, which has dragged its feet on developing a new national transportation policy for two years now.  In fact, the program that drives our nation’s transportation infrastructure investments is set to expire (again) on September 30^th.

This week President Obama took to the Rose Garden to urge Congress to act quickly to extend the already expired transportation bill, known as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU).

Extending this transportation bill to prevent disruption of transportation projects and the jobs that go with them across the country is urgent (as is extending the federal gas tax that happens to expire on the same day), but so is transforming our nation’s transportation policy to undo the “legacy for users” that the old bill perpetuated.  A nation of users, addicted to oil, is truly an awful legacy for any federal program.  Cities like Omaha are its legacy – but across the country people want change.

The Blue Green Alliance – a coalition of labor and environmental organizations of which the Sierra Club is a member – welcomed the President’s call for action recognizing that:

“Currently, the U.S. spends approximately $1 billion a day on foreign oil, while transportation accounts for nearly one-third of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Investing in American-made cleaner vehicles, roads, bridges, tunnels, rail, transit, and better biking and walking can create millions of jobs in infrastructure, manufacturing, and operations.

A cleaner, safer, more efficient 21st century transportation system will reduce pollution and our addiction to foreign oil, create new jobs and opportunity for workers across the nation, and ensure America remains competitive in the global economy.”

Extending the old transportation bill in the near term will give Congress a bit more time to pave the way for a new bill that invests in the 21^st century transportation system we need.

We need a transportation policy that:

• Sets a national goal to reduce oil consumption from transportation;
• Reforms transportation planning to account for impacts on oil consumption, air pollution and local land use;
• Increases investment in clean transportation choices from transit to safe walking and biking and encourages innovation;
• Ensures a national freight program is multimodal and seeks to reduce energy consumption resulting from transporting goods; and
• Fixes the roads and bridges we already have that are in desperate need of repair.

The legacy of a new transportation program should be ending our addiction to oil by increasing safe options for getting where we need to go car-free; one that will help cities like Omaha rebuild and redesign their transportation systems so that we can keep $1 billion a day in our economy.

Let’s look beyond the fake grassroots campaigns and bullying of landowners by supporters and planners of the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. Let’s instead look at something even more important: We don’t need this expensive, dangerous and polluting project that only continues our dependence on fossil fuels and threatens our climate – We need better transportation policy.

Our country needs to break its oil dependence and act to prevent climate disruption– and President Obama just made two major decisions on fuel economy and carbon pollution standards for cars and trucks that move us toward that goal. Not only will these standards cut our oil use, but they will also dramatically cut carbon pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that in 2018 the new truck rule alone will reduce carbon pollution by 25 million metric tons annually.

In comparison, the agency’s analysis of the carbon impacts of tar sands oil that the Keystone XL would deliver found that the project would increase annual emissions by 27 million metric tons. Why would the Obama Administration want to undo the progress made with car and truck fuel pollution standards by allowing Keystone XL?

If we are cleaning up cars and trucks of all kinds, then we cannot ignore the fuels going into the cleaner cars. Vehicle standards won’t solve our problem if we’re using the dirtiest of fuels out there. The fact is, we cannot stop the threat of climate disruption by moving emissions around. We cannot reduce carbon pollution from vehicles and then increase them again via fuels.

We don’t need Keystone XL or any future tar sands oil projects. Thankfully there are some in Congress who agree – especially on the public health impacts of tar sands. Yesterday, Rep. Hank Johnson sent a letter to the Department of State urging them to conduct a study on the health impacts of raw tar sands crude oil. Johnson was joined by 35 members of the House in exhibiting their responsibility as elected officials to protect the wellbeing of their constituents, rather than the profits of Big Oil companies.

Instead of dirty, polluting tar sands, what we need is a national transportation plan that cuts demand for oil while increasing mobility and choices. We need sustainable communities that are walkable and bikeable ­ so we’re not relying more on cars – even ones that use less oil.

The Obama Administration has taken some good strides in reducing our oil dependence with historic vehicle standards. Just one wrong decision such as TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline could undermine these important gains.

The right decision is to say no to the dirtiest fuels – we should say no to Keystone XL.

– Co-written by Sierra Club Green Transportation Director Ann Mesnikoff and Kate Colarulli, Associate Director of the Beyond Oil Campaign. Done as part of the DailyKos “Stop Tar Sands” blog-a-thon.

On Friday, President Obama announced a plan to strengthen fuel efficiency and carbon pollution standards for new cars and light trucks to 54.5 mpg by 2025.  Backdropped by an array of high mileage vehicles, the announcement was quite the celebratory event that brought together automakers, auto workers, our go60mpg coalition, staff from EPA, DOT and the White House and members of Congress.

As we celebrated on Friday, it is worth remembering that fuel efficiency standards for new cars stalled out for more than two decades.  But in a little more than two years in office, President Obama has ensured 15 years of momentum that will double the fuel efficiency of our cars and light trucks and significantly cut tailpipe carbon pollution.

These standards are an important step in moving American beyond oil – one that Americans strongly support.   Americans sent the Obama administration nearly 300,000 messages calling for a strong 60 mpg standard.  The President is moving forward on his promise to save consumers money at the gas pump, cut pollution, and end our addiction to oil.

Americans from all walks of life weighed in – from mothers worried about their children’s future, to veterans concerned about putting more of our troops in harm’s way.  It’s clear that Americans want to end our dangerous addiction to oil by making our cars and light trucks as efficient as possible.

Take Brenna Pink for example. She’s greatly concerned about her 6-year-old son Rocco’s future.  In her Seattle neighborhood, no access to rail, buses or trains to get across town means she’s solely dependent on her car to bring Rocco to school or summer camp, and to do errands.  While this means that skyrocketing gas prices are already cutting into her family’s quality of life now, it’s years down the road that worry her most.

“My husband and I are trying our best to make sure Rocco can enjoy a bright future,” wrote Pink in a recent Seattle Times op-ed.  “We have health insurance, we’ve started a college fund, and if available, we’d want to get him ‘environmental insurance,’ so to speak. I expect our decision makers to handle that one…and I urge President Obama to rise to the occasion and deliver on his campaign promise to significantly cut our oil addiction.”

For Thomas Buonomo, making 60 mpg cars the norm is critical to our national security.  As a former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, he has seen the physical and psychological consequences of war firsthand.  He believes that dramatically cutting our oil addiction is essential to cutting our reliance on foreign nations for fuel and reducing the number of troops we need to secure oil supplies.

Another veteran and retired postal worker, Mike Lavey of Cortez, CO, is taking cutting our oil addiction into his own hands.  He works as a driver for the Montezuma County Public Transportation facility in Southwest Colorado and bikes his 10-mile roundtrip commute to work every day.

“At work, I get to help other folks here in Cortez get around town without having to fill up at the gas pump,” wrote Lavey in the Cortez Journal. “[But] there are still millions of Americans who are forced to take cars to get where they need to go.  Those folks should not have to drive a 2-ton gas guzzler just to go a few miles down the road.”

Many other Americans are frustrated about how, in spite of the dangerous consequences of our oil addiction, U.S. automakers have stalled out on the road to better fuel efficiency.  Lisa Huff, a state employee in Knoxville, TN, drives a 1989 Honda Civic that gets 40 miles per gallon on the highway, more than 10 mpg better than today’s average cars.  “It’s a shame that 22 years after my old Civic left the dealership, it’s still getting way better gas mileage that most new cars on the road today,” wrote Huff in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Americans want better and know that American technology and innovation can get us there.  This did not stop the auto industry from launching a PR campaign built on misinformation and spin aimed at getting the weakest possible proposal.

Fortunately the Administration did not cave into the auto industry’s “can’t do” message, but the industry did secure loopholes and provisions that must be fixed over the next year.  A 54.5 mpg standard will save consumers money at the gas pump and cut our need for foreign oil, but to deliver, the final rule must be strong.

American carmakers have the technology today to get to at least 60 mpg by 2025; European carmakers are already set to get there by 2020. Automakers must be challenged to not just meet but exceed the standards. To get the most of 54.5 mpg we will have to work to eliminate any loopholes that weaken the standards and force us to use more oil and emit more life-threatening pollution. Americans from across the country weighed in with nearly 300,000 actions and we will need an even louder chorus to ensure that the final standards as strong as they can be.

–Photo 1 is from Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.  Other photos are anonymous submissions from the Go60 photo petition.

Earlier this year some automakers were feeling pretty boastful about their technological abilities make cars that use less oil. Both Toyota and GM official saying they could meet a 62 mpg standard and that “the industry can do anything it wants when it puts its mind to it.”

And then last weekend it was leaked that the Obama Administration was considering a 56.2 mpg vehicle fuel efficiency standard. Now we’re hearing something slightly different from the auto industry. One GM official had this to say about a possible 2025 standards of 56.2 mpg:  “It is very challenging….But it’s up to us as engineers to provide high value to the customer and support the environment.”

Another GM representative added this: “We’re willing to be pushed by a tough national standard,” Greg Martin, GM’s Washington spokesman, said in an interview. But he added: “The devil is in the details.”

The “devil is in the details” is right and the details will determine whether a 56.2 mpg standard actually delivers oil savings and pollution reductions. The industry is pushing for loopholes that will turn a 56.2 mpg fuel efficiency standard on its head. Automakers want to be let off the hook by doing little in the early years of the standards with the promise to do more later. Details like these really are devils.

But here are some other details to consider: CERES, a Boston-based green business group, has concluded that the strongest standard the administration is considering (cutting pollution by 6% per year every year between 2017 and 2025) will create jobs by keeping our dollars in our economy instead of spending them on oil: We can create a net gain of 700,000 full time jobs for Americans in 2030 by cutting pollution 6% per year and hitting at least 60 mpg in 2025. The auto industry would gain 60,000 of these jobs.

Another detail CERES finds is that strong standards will shift where we spend our dollars – billions can be spent on oil or spent on other things. A strong standard will yield $152 billion in fuel savings at the pump in year 2030 – pumping more than $150 billion from the oil industry into other places in our economy. CERES concludes that $59 billion of these savings will go to the auto industry through purchases of cleaner cars and $93 billion for the rest of the economy.

Oh, those devilish details – oil savings, job creation, consumer savings and whether or not President Obama meets his goals of cutting oil imports by a third or having a million EVs on the road will be decided by those details.

But if we want a strong standard, we must have the right details – ones that cut pollution and improve efficiency consistently each year and guarantee that path from 2017-2025.  In 2030 a 60 mpg standard will save 2.5 million barrels of oil every day, allow consumers to spend $7500 that they might have spent on gas on other things, and keep 3.3 billion metric ton of global warming pollution out of the atmosphere and create jobs.

We should not compromise now. A 60 mpg standard will put American innovation and technology to work and Americans will invest in that technology with every new car they buy.  The leaked number from the Administration 56.2 mpg standard will save less oil – but if the industry wins on its “details” we will all lose.  Fortunately there is still time to get this one right – help us send a message to the President with your photo and message on why we need to go 60 mpg.

Today’s news should cheer clean car lovers: A group of current and former Republican officials sent a letter to President Obama urging better vehicle fuel economy standards. Yes, you read that correctly.

Here’s an excerpt (read the entire letter here):

The volatility of oil prices along with today’s soaring price at the pump are a threat to our economy and national security….To unleash more fuel-saving ingenuity…it is critical that the automotive industry has a long-term and stable policy direction. Strong, forward-looking standards for new vehicle fuel efficiency and emissions will provide industry with needed certainty for investment in new technologies while also driving reductions in oil consumption and carbon pollution that fuels climate change.

The letter goes on to support the move by the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State of California that requires fuel economy standards of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 – and then urges even stronger standards for vehicle models from 2017 to 2025.

This letter is quite timely, as over the next month President Obama will be deciding how strong the standards will be for new vehicles sold between 2017 and 2025. While the year 2025 may seem like a long way off, decisions are being made now and we need your help to ensure new cars meet high standards.

Here’s where you can make a big difference: We need to send a strong message to President Obama to seize this historic opportunity to make 60 mpg the standard for new vehicles by 2025. A picture is worth a thousand words, so help show President Obama that Americans from coast to coast support 60 mpg.

The Sierra Club is gathering photos from the public of why you want such strong vehicle fuel economy standards. Tired of going bankrupt every time you fill up? Don’t want to leave your kids and grandkids addicted to oil like this generation is? Whatever the reason, take a photo of it and add it to our petition right here.

We can all make a difference, and President Obama needs to hear from us. Will you join us (and these great forward-thinking Republicans!) in calling for 60mpg from President Obama?

The year 2025 may seem like a long way off.  But the mileage of a new car my 10-year-old son might consider buying when he is 26 is being decided now as the Obama administration hones in on how strong new pollution and fuel efficiency standards should be for new vehicles.

The choice being made now is whether to reduce the carbon pollution spewing from new vehicle tailpipes between 3-6% per year between 2017-2025.  My colleague Dan Becker noted this week in Politico:

The difference is a big deal – even beyond the environmental benefit that the larger cut would deliver: less carbon dioxide pollution and less smog. Consider the savings in oil and dollars.

If emissions are reduced 6 percent, U.S. consumers would use 217 million fewer barrels of oil in 2025 than if the administration opts for 3 percent and would pay $16 billion less to foreign oil producers. For every percentage point below 6 percent, we send them an additional $5.5 billion.

So it’s an easy choice for Obama: Keep it here or send it there?

Fortunately the Obama Administration has some help in deciding how strong these new car standards should be – California’s Air Resources Board. Our organizer in California had this editorial published last week on California’s leadership in moving the state and the nation beyond oil, and I wanted to share it here:

State and Federal Action Can Help Californians’ Pain at the Pump
By Amanda Wallner, Sierra Club California

We should not let dips in gas prices fool us into thinking cheap gas is on the way; gasoline prices have gone up more than 25% since January 1 [1]. With much attention given to the summer driving months ahead, two recently released reports analyze the cost to California consumers of rising oil prices and how state and national governments can help protect us from the grip of Big Oil.

The 2011 edition of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s “Fighting Oil Addiction: Ranking States’ Gasoline Price Vulnerability and Solutions for Change,” analyzes the vulnerability of Americans in different states to changing oil prices, as well as state and federal policies to help drivers [2]. Through April of this year, the average California driver is spending 7.19% of their income on gasoline – up 2.54% from last year.

However, according the NRDC report, there is a bright spot for California drivers. Though there is no immediate solution to high gas prices, smart transportation polices can reduce the pain at the pump for all drivers. California’s leadership in adopting strong state vehicle emissions and clean fuel standards has propelled the state to first nationally among those states doing the most to get off oil.

California has already proven that setting strong emission standards here leads to national progress. In April of 2010, national fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for vehicles sold between 2012-2016 were issued, delivering to the nation the benefits of California’s historic greenhouse gas standards (named for our own Fran Pavley).

Right now, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has a chance to work with US EPA and DOT to set a high bar for the next round of national standards – as it has done in the past, the state should lead the rest of the country toward the cleanest cars possible.

CARB must uphold its responsibility to Californians to set strong vehicle emission standards by requiring that at least 20% of vehicle sales by 2025 be Zero Emission Vehicles like electric cars and that greenhouse gas emissions drop by at least 6-8% annually.

California has the unique opportunity to lead in ensuring the national greenhouse gas pollution standards for the vehicles that will be sold between 2017 and 2025 are strong enough. At a time when drivers in California and nationwide are suffering under high gas prices, we must demand strong standards here and from the administration.

The benefits of adopting a national 60 mpg standard are undeniable: a new Environment America report finds that if our cars met that standard today, Californians could save over $7.8 billion at the pump this summer alone [3].

Better state policies that give residents transportation options, such as transit assistance and telecommuting options, will also be part of the solution nationally. In California, communities throughout the state will find new ways to prioritize public transportation and smart growth as they begin to release their first Sustainable Community Strategies as part of SB 375.

SB 375, or the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, requires each region in California to develop transportation, land-use and housing policies to achieve regional emission reduction targets. These policies, which will reduce the miles residents need to travel by car, are another essential part of breaking our addiction to oil.

Our oil dependence costs us more each day, whether it’s the price at the pump, the dangerous pollution in our air, or the risks we take with our coasts that result in tragedies like the BP oil disaster last year. California has done a lot to move beyond oil and should continue to lead. But, we also need the Obama administration to step up and cut greenhouse gas pollution by 6% per year and achieve a national fuel efficiency standard of at least 60 miles per gallon by 2025. The nation and California need strong standards.
__________________________________
[1] “Who’s to blame when gas costs $1 more than last year.” Dan Pillar. The Des Moines Register.

[2] “Fighting Oil Addiction: Ranking States’ Gasoline Price Vulnerability and Solutions for Change.” Deron Lovaas, Justin Horner, Natural Resources Defense Council. May 2011.

[3] “Summer Gas Prices: Beating the Heat with Clean Cars.” John Cross, Environment America Research&Policy Center; Elizabeth Riddlington, Frontier Group. May 2011.

– Ann Mesnikoff, Director of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Campaign. Don’t forget Thursday, June 16th is Dump the Pump Day! Learn more on the American Public Transportation Association website.