Clean Car Standards
Cleaner-burning cars translate into cleaner air and less global warming pollution.
News update: U.S. EPA Stalls Clean Car Standards for States
By adopting the “clean car standards," the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission has ensured that all new passenger cars and light-duty trucks sold in our state will be cleaner-burning, more climate-friendly and more fuel-efficient, starting with the 2009 model year.
Clean cars protect our health and curb global warming.
Clean car standards reduce dangerous auto emissions that aggravate asthma and contribute to other lung diseases, cancer and heart disease. They will also cut global warming pollution from new cars by an average of 30% by 2016.
Clean cars make our nation more secure.
Oil dependence is a matter of national security that also threatens our economy. With clean car standards we’ll put American car manufacturers to work building a whole new generation of cars that sip, rather than guzzle, oil.
Clean cars save car owners money and increase consumer choice.
Because clean cars use less fuel, they save drivers money at the gas pump. The states that have enacted clean car standards have the same SUVs, light trucks and passenger cars that other states have, only with better pollution control technology.
How OEC promoted the clean car standards.
OEC coordinated a coalition effort comprised of more than 100 businesses and organizations, along with countless citizens. Together, the Clean Cars for Oregon coalition ensured adoption of the clean car standards June 2006.
OEC also ensured that two important pieces of legislation were passed by the 2007 Oregon Legislature to implement the clean car standards: 1) funding for our Department of Environmental Quality to implement the standards and 2) a bill ensuring that DMV has the authority to deny registration to new vehicles that do not meet the standards.
