Iowa Global Warming

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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In an interview earlier this week, the head of the E.P.A. Lisa Jackson said she had asked her staff to begin filing an “endangerment” claim concerning carbon emissions from new coal power plants. The final decision on the matter, expected to come sometime just before the April 2nd anniversary of the Mass. Vs. EPA decision, will have a profound effect on utlities, transportation, and the political clout of the U.S. at the upcoming United Nations Climate talks in Copenhagen this December.

The announcement comes as signal of a reversal of one of the last policies of the Bush era, which stated that carbon emissions should not be considered when granting permits for new coal power plants. The E.P.A. has recently begun citing internationally-supported findings suggesting that global warming gas emissions are having a negative effect on the worlds economy and health, and hence is likely to find that the U.S. should begin the process of regulating them.

Though the decision itself does not necessarily constitute the creation of a new “law,” it could possibly begin one of the largest policy-adjustments in American history, the New York Times reported yesterday. “We are poised to be specific on what we regulate and on what schedule,” Ms. Jackson said. Still-the undertaking will be massive.

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