Rep. Nathan Reichert (D-Muscatine) has put a bill before the Iowa legislature endorsing a limit on tailpipe emissions from all vehicles purchased in the state of Iowa. The law is modeled after a similar law from California, which just recently received approval from the Supreme Court last month.
If passed, the law would come into effect in early 2011, and would require a cut in carbon emissions from tailpipes as high as 22% by 2012 and 30% by 2016. The cost of the project is estimated at around $1,000-$3,000 per vehicle, but advocates they savings in fuel economy would greatly off-set those numbers, if not even sway them into the green.
Though the auto industry has long fought similar proposals, many agree this may finally be a chance to drag Detroit out of the hole and give it a chance to revolutionize its fleet. Representatives from the auto industry often claim that they don’t have the technology, but many countries around the world have been employing similar strategies for decades, and we know the technology exists.
Says Representative Reichert, “They always go back to the same argument that it’s going to cost more, it’s going to cost more. Well, guess what? In today’s environment and the product they’re putting out, nobody’s buying.”
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