EVLN(CARB turned back automakers objections/opposition)

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EVLN(CARB turned back automakers objections/opposition)
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV informational
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 --- {EVangel}
MISCELLANEOUS AUTOMAKERS' OBJECTIONS OVERRULED CALIFORNIA ORDERS
ELECTRIC VEHICLES GARY POLAKOVIC, LOS ANGELES TIMES 01/28/2001
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette REGION A-2 (Copyright 2001)

Air quality officials this past week turned back industry opposition
to electric vehicles, setting California on course to launch a
clean-car revolution that could lead to thousands of advanced vehicles
on U.S. highways as early as next year.

The unanimous vote to require auto makers to sell electric cars in
California, beginning with the 2003 model year, automatically triggers
copycat mandates in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, where 8
percent of the nation's new cars are sold.  Under federal law, those
states could require electric vehicles only if California did so.

The move came after a sometimes acrimonious debate in which
representatives of the automobile industry urged the California Air
Resources Board to abandon the so-called zero-emission vehicle
mandate.

The auto makers have fought the requirement for a decade, arguing that
battery-powered cars are impractical and unmarketable, and they
intensified their lobbying in recent weeks.

"Our companies have explored the path of battery electric vehicles.
However, electric cars with broad consumer appeal are an idea whose
time has come and gone, much like eight-track tapes, Betamax and New
Coke," Josephine Cooper, president of the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers, told board members.

The alliance, representing the world's 13 largest auto makers, urged
the board to replace the mandate with a three-year pilot project that
would not have allowed other states to require electric cars.

But the auto makers' stance triggered a backlash from members of the
11-member board.

"I've found this campaign to be outrageous," said Matthew R. 
McKinnon, a labor leader who is one of Gov. Gray Davis' appointees to
the board.

Another board member, William F. Friedman, a physician at UCLA, told a
representative from General Motors during the hearing: "It is really
time to get on with the business of progress. And progress will be
made when we stick it to you to make you do what you need to do."

Supporters of the electric car rule said that requiring auto makers to
begin mass production would bring down costs and force the development
of new technologies that ultimately will expand the range and reduce
the cost of smog-free vehicles.
 ...
 http://www.post-gazette.com/
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

===

Front CALIF. CUTS BACK ON ELECTRIC CAR SALES New York Times
01/27/2001 The Arizona Republic Final Chaser A28 (Copyright 2001
Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.)

Ignoring last-minute objections by automakers, the California Air
Resources Board approved a scaled-down plan requiring that 2 percent
of the cars offered for sale in the state by major manufacturers be
battery-powered, starting in 2003.

The board's decision, which came Thursday night after an all-day
hearing in Sacramento, is expected to lead to the adoption of similar
plans in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, which are following
California's air pollution-control regulations.  Some auto industry
representatives had argued that the state should not encourage a shift
to electric cars during a power shortage. But the air board rejected
that argument out of hand, saying that a few thousand electric cars
would use a minuscule amount of electricity and that the shortage
should be over by 2003.

Under the new plan, 2 percent of cars in showrooms must have no
tailpipe emissions, a standard that can be met now only by battery-
powered cars. Under the previous plan, the requirement would have been
4 percent. That change and a variety of others will mean that as few
as 4,650 full-size electric cars need be put on sale in 2003, down
from 22,000 estimated for the old plan.

The sales requirement will rise to about 15,000 in 2012, down from
40,000 under the previous plan. However, the new figure is twice the
number contemplated in a plan proposed by the agency's staff in
December.

Environmentalists and other proponents of electric cars said they were
disappointed with the low numbers overall but pleased at the increases
for later years.

"The debating is over and we're now finally on the path to zero
emissions," said Jason Mark, director of the clean vehicles program
for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Berkeley. "This was the last
chance to see major changes."

Automobile executives have said that the program would make only a
minimal contribution to cleaning California's air and that it would be
difficult to sell even a few thousand electric vehicles. The cars,
they say, are not practical, because they cost $20,000 more than
gasoline cars of the same size and can travel only 50 to 100 miles
before needing recharging, which takes several hours.

The auto industry had proposed a three-year marketing test to see if
the cars could be sold in California. At the very least the industry
wanted the program to be an agreement between the state and the
automobile companies, rather than a regulation. That would have
avoided encouraging the adoption of similar plans in New York,
Massachusetts and Vermont.

Although auto executives said they were disappointed with the board's
decision, some said they were hopeful that they could satisfy the
requirements.

"We have a plan in place to meet the early stages," Ford spokeswoman
Sara Tatchio said.

Besides the 2 percent zero-emission vehicles, the plan calls for
another 2 percent of cars offered for sale starting in 2003 to be
hybrids, combining gasoline and electric power, or to use other
advanced technologies.
 ...
 http://www.azcentral.com  dhontz@pni.com
Copyright The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved.
Tel# 602-271-8645   Copyright Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
 ---
% RE for your EV %  BruceDP@iname.com  http://eaaev.org/brucedp
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~/__|o\__              SJEAA EVents Officer  http://eaaev.org/sjeaa
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Renewable Energy (RE) News Editor

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