By Trent McArdle Venice Beach
Day in day out you see advertisements on television, in magazines and everywhere else among the media that our environment is discentigrating rapidly and that if we don't change our ways, in the near future, our natural resources will be in real danger. With this we are asked to act upon this, but I believe this action has to start at the top.
In 1990 CARB came up with a plan for automakers to produce 75,000 zero emission vehicles, which one would say is a step in the right direction. Now they are re-evaluating this plan and [potentially] dropping this number down to around 50,000.
Now I realize that these cars are less cost effective than other types and this is the argument that CARB is putting forward. Our nation is currently in a recession but the only people that are ultimately losing money out of the zero emission cars are the oil companies. The consumers would, in the long run, be saving money.
It is the way of the future. USA is 10 years behind the green revolution. In Europe there are zero emission cars and fully self sustainable houses through the use of solar and other alternative energies. In the long run these alternative ways of the future will inevitably be cheaper for the everyday consumer. You can see this evidence with the weakening American dollar compared to the Euro.
This is the ultimate question that CARB needs to answer. Is there not a more economical way to handle this situation? Research and development is all that is needed to drop these manufacturing costs. If our country could just look at the way Europe is handling their environment and adopt some of their ideas we could be in a lot better situation both economically and environmentally.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 26, 2008. Read the original PDF.