Sustainable Transportation News Releases
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| 2010-04-01 | |
| In a huge win for Oregon’s environment, public health and energy security, the Obama administration today announced new standards for automobile fuel economy and global warming emissions. An Environment Oregon analysis found that these new federal standards—based on the “clean cars program” developed by California and adopted by 13 other states, including Oregon—will save Oregonian’s 124 million gallons of gasoline by 2016 as compared to the previous federal standards, while reducing emissions of global warming pollutants and providing a net economic savings to consumers. | |
| 2010-01-22 | |
| Our new report, "Plug-in Cars: Powering America Toward a Cleaner Future," answers many questions about plug-in vehicles and lays out a strategy for how to increase the number of electric vehicles on the road. It highlights data from existing research to show that electric vehicles can help to improve Americans’ standards of living. | |
| 2009-06-30 | |
| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today approved the Clean Air Act waiver that Oregon – as well as 13 other states and the District of Columbia – needs to implement its program to reduce global warming pollution from passenger vehicles. | |
| 2009-03-04 | |
| Tomorrow, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hear testimony on allowing Oregon and more than a dozen other states to move forward on strong clean cars standards that the Bush administration had been blocking. Giving a green light to Oregon’s clean cars program would reduce global warming pollution from cars by 14.2 million metric tons by 2020. And from reduced gasoline consumption, Oregonians would save $3.04 billion by 2020 at the pump, according to Environment Oregon’s analysis. | |
| 2006-09-26 | |
| A bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives, including four members of Oregon’s congressional delegation, sent a letter today to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, urging him to approve a waiver that Oregon and 10 other states need to implement their Clean Cars program, which will limit global warming pollution and other harmful emissions from cars and SUVs. The EPA has not acted on a waiver request originally made in December 2005. | |
| 2006-07-19 | |
| Today, Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) joined Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to introduce the Fuel Economy Reform Act of 2006, a promising new bill to make our cars and SUVs go farther on a gallon of gasoline. | |
| 2006-06-05 | |
| After the Pacific Northwest’s first month in history with gasoline prices hovering around $3 a gallon, Governor Kulongoski today joined OSPIRG to call on the Oregon Congressional delegation to vote for a proposal to increase automobile gas mileage standards to 33 miles per gallon (mpg). OSPIRG also released a study finding that a 33 mpg standard would save Oregonians $223 million annually. | |
| 2006-05-20 | |
| Southern Oregon’s roads have seen a 14% increase in traffic since 1991, and Josephine County has seen a 24% increase, according to analysis released by the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) in advance of a public hearing here on the proposed Clean Cars program. The increase means more air pollution in the Rogue Valley, more global warming pollution that threatens Oregon’s water supply, and more dependence on oil for our energy. A proposed Clean Cars program will provide solutions for all three problems. | |
| 2006-05-02 | |
| Our governor and attorney general is doing the right thing by working to force change at the federal level to help Oregonians facing budget-busting gas prices. Better gas mileage not only saves money at the gas pump, it’s also one of the biggest steps America can take to curb global warming pollution. | |
| 2006-02-18 | |
| Clean cars programs adopted by Oregon and 9 other states will cut global warming pollution in 2020 by 64 million metric tons per year, an amount greater than the national emissions of more than 140 nations, according to new analysis by the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG). Put another way, by 2020 the Clean Cars Programs in these states will eliminate as much carbon dioxide pollution annually as is produced by 17 coal-fired power plants generating enough power for 6.3 million U.S. homes. | |
| 2005-12-22 | |
| The state’s Environmental Quality Commission voted today to adopt the Clean Cars program, which will require new cars and trucks sold in Oregon to cut their global warming pollution. New standards start to phase in with model year 2009 and by 2016 will require new cars and trucks to emit 30% less global warming pollution. The Commission must vote again by June in order to make the program permanent. | |
| 2005-11-17 | |
| Weeks before the Environmental Quality Commission is poised to vote on a temporary rule to adopt the Clean Cars program, Oregonians gathered to display clean car technology and support for adopting the standards. At the event, where Oregonians brought their own clean cars, OSPIRG released a new report documenting advanced technology for cutting pollution from cars and trucks and delivered more than 4,000 thank you cards to the Governor for his support for the Clean Cars program. | |
| 2005-10-04 | |
| According to a new study released by Oregon State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG), global warming pollution from cars and light trucks in Oregon will rise to 31% above 1990 levels by 2020 if the state doesn’t take action to control emissions. A Clean Cars program proposed by Governor Kulongoski would cut pollution 12% below projected levels by 2020, the equivalent of taking about 350,000 cars off the road. Global warming pollution from cars and trucks would stabilize near 2000 levels. The report was unveiled at a news conference where Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown of Portland and Representative Greg Macpherson of Lake Oswego voiced support for enacting the program this year. | |
| 2005-09-15 | |
| At an event in front of Mercedes Benz of Portland, OSPIRG and the Sierra Club called on auto dealers who are suing to block the Clean Cars program to withdraw their names from the complaint. | |
| 2005-09-12 | |
| The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers filed suit Friday against two Oregon state agencies seeking to block the adoption of the Clean Cars program, a set of emissions standards aimed at making cuts in Oregon’s global warming pollution. | |
| 2005-08-29 | |
| Governor Kulongoski put Oregon on the road to cleaner cars today, in an announcement to a large crowd of supporters in Pioneer Courthouse Square. He vetoed a legislative provision prohibiting him from taking action, and pledged to bring the Clean Cars program to Oregon before the end of the year. That means that Oregonians will have access to clean cars by model year 2009. | |
| 2005-08-06 | |
| Notably absent from the final actions of the 2005 Oregon Legislature was a provision blocking Oregon’s environmental agencies from adopting new air pollution regulations for cars and light trucks. Automakers and auto dealers attempted, right up until the final hours of the legislature, to insert language setting up roadblocks for a Clean Cars program into a bill expanding the use of biofuels. That bill failed to pass in part because leaders in the House insisted on including the provision, which Senate leaders, including Senator Ryan Deckert (D-Beaverton), had said was non-negotiable. | |
| 2005-07-15 | |
| A split three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals today failed to answer whether the U.S. EPA has authority to regulate pollution that causes global warming. Today's ruling, in a 2-1 decision involving three conflicting opinions, denied a petition by more than a dozen environmental groups, including OSPIRG's federal policy office, as well as 12 states, including Oregon, and three cities, challenging the agency's refusal to regulate carbon dioxide pollution from cars and trucks. | |
