Amy Traub

California Drives Us Forward

In September 2004, California introduced the nation’s strongest vehicle emission’s standards, aiming to combat global warming by requiring that cars and trucks sold in the state emit 30% less carbon by 2016. More than a dozen other states followed suit.

The results? A lengthy legal battle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which, under President Bush, refused to grant California the waiver it needed to adopt the policy.

It was a serious set back for the effort to fight climate change, and a pyrrhic victory for the American auto industry. Car manufacturers lost yet another opportunity to get to work on the fuel-efficient vehicles of the future. Meanwhile, the years of uncertainty about which regulations would ultimately be required where hampered the industry’s ability to plan ahead.

The obstructionism ends today. According to the New York Times, the Obama Administration is set to announce that the entire nation must meet California’s auto emissions standards. In addition, California and other states will have the ability to set their own, still higher standards in the future. This is a welcome example of how state and local policy can push the national policy conversation forward.

We need that push. In his column yesterday, Paul Krugman considered the nature of progress under the Obama Administration and the current Democratic Congress: “Policy tends to move things in a desirable direction, yet to fall short of what you’d hoped to see. And the question becomes how many compromises, how much watering down, one is willing to accept.” We’ve seen that pattern repeatedly on TheMiddleClass.org this year, from credit card reform to the stimulus. We finally get action on urgent national priorities, but the policy isn’t commensurate to the scope of the problem. Krugman sees it coming on health care and global warming legislation. But by establishing a benchmark -- and providing a concrete example of good policy at work -- California, and the other cities and states across the country have the potential to set the bar higher and spur us on.

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Posted at 8:45 AM, May 19, 2009 in Energy & Environment
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