Oregon Emissions Standards

Yesterday the state of Oregon signed on to new auto emissions standards, the ones originally set by California. Some consequences:

• new car and truck prices will go up by over $1,200 by 2016. 2009 models, when the program starts, will go up an average of $200.
  
• savings of 1.7 MMT/yr in transportation GHG emissions by 2020. That will be down 18% by 2020 and 27% by 2030. That comes to a savings of 9,000 t/day by 2020 and 16,000 t/day by 2030. The state's total emission of GHGs, all sectors, is about 70 MMT/yr. So this saves about 2% of Oregon's total GHG emissions in 2020.
  
• savings of $25/mth in gas for the average car (assumes $3/gal gas).
• 165,000/yr new passenger cars are sold.
  

Oregon is now one of 10 states who have adopted or are in the process of adopting the California standards, which includes Washington, NY, NJ, Massachusetts, and the New England states. The rules require the emission of fewer nitrous oxides (smog), carbon dioxide (GW), and encourage more battery and alternative fuel cars.

This is a big win for Governor Ted Kulongowski, who has made global warming a priority of his administration.

Naturally, the national auto industry is sueing. The Oregon Auto Dealers Association is naturally opposed. One backward-looking auto dealer said, "He's [Kulongowski] going to cost consumers unnecessarily at the end of the day because they'll be paying roughly $1,000 more a vehicle to comply with these emissions requirements, when it will affect a minuscule amount of our air quality."

I bet the cost per new car ultimately ends up being significantly less than ~$1000.