A California official is sponsoring a bill that would outlaw SUVs from the state’s fleet of 73,000 vehicles.
State Treasurer Phil Angeledis thinks California should lead the way for the rest of the country, the BBC reports.
“Well I think the state has an obligation to set an example,” Angeledis told the British news service. “And if we can reduce air pollution, reduce our dependence on oil, if we can cut our costs, then we should do so … .”
While California would be the first state to introduce such legislation, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, is considering a similar ban, the BBC said.
Environmentalists believe California has an obligation to act because of its more than 30 million cars on the road each day.
“California represents about 2 percent of global warming emissions altogether,” said Russell Long of the Bluewater Network, according to the BBC. “As air temperatures increase, we have greater smog and greater smog also leads to a greater incidence of asthma and respiratory infection and premature death.”
SUV Owners of America, a consumer group, says the legislative effort is misguided.
“Today’s most popular SUVs on the market, like the Chevrolet Trailblazer and the Ford Explorer, those vehicles have the same exact emissions as old passenger cars, and they have lower emissions from the tailpipe than a passenger car built just three years ago,” says the group’s president, Jason Vines.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports, SUV Owners of America is running a full-page ad in yesterday’s USA Today that pokes fun at an anti-SUV campaign by religious leaders called “What Would Jesus Drive?”
The ad, with a smiling man standing next to his SUV, asks “What Would Jesus (Rivera) Drive?”
“For millions of people like Jesus Rivera, it’s all about safety, utility and versatility,” the ad says, according to the AP. “Maybe that’s why they call them SUVs.”
Vines said his group, which has several hundred members, spent $17,000 on the ad. It is running in Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., areas.
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