Report: New rules will slash car pollution.

Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

Oregon's move to require cleaner cars will reduce greenhouse gases in the state by about 12 percent by 2020 - assuming that the effort survives a legal challenge by Republican lawmakers and automakers, a new report estimates.

Calculations released Tuesday by the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group indicated that the gas reductions from Oregon's clean car program would equal the exhaust of 350,000 cars.

"It's a huge impact, and we're not sure that everyone understood the significance of this policy," said report contributor Isaac Silverman, who works for the Portland-based research group.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski set the program wheels in motion in August when he crossed out three lines that lawmakers had attached to a budget bill during the 2005 session. The three lines had barred the administration from spending money to adopt California's strict car emissions standards. In striking the language, Kulongoski said he wants to institute the cleaner emissions standards here, in lockstep with California and the state of Washington.

In response, on Sept. 9, lawmakers led by Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, joined with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and more than a dozen Oregon car dealers to challenge Kulongoski's line-item veto.

The lawsuit filed in Marion County Circuit Court contends that Oregon's governor can use his authority to delete a single spending program from appropriations bills - but not a "legislative condition" set on a particular program.

Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland, disagrees, saying Kulongoski was on legally firm ground in striking the three sentences. Lawmakers had acted illegally in the first place when they attached the "legislative condition" to an appropriations measure rather than a policy bill, she said.

"Suffice it to say that the Ted Ferriolis of the world decry frivolous lawsuits, and now they have provided us with a perfect example of a frivolous lawsuit," Brown said. "The constitution is clear. The case law is clear."

The question has taken on a partisan hue with Democratic leaders in favor of the California emissions standard and Republican leaders against it.

Ferrioli didn't return a call from The Register-Guard requesting comment. An Oregon lobbyist representing the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said he could not comment while the question is in litigation.

The Oregon Auto Dealers Association is not a party to the lawsuit, but it represents many of the dealers that have joined in the action.

Greg Remensperger, association executive vice president, said the California standards won't make cars that much cleaner.

"It's not really going to make that big of an impact on the environment," he said, and later added: "Oregon has clean air. This is not viewed as a state that's in jeopardy."

The law would put the onus on automakers to figure out how to reduce emissions, for instance, by developing more electric/gas hybrids or improving emissions control tech- nology.

All of the attorneys in the automakers vs. Oregon lawsuit have asked the court for an expedited review.

In the meantime, Oregon emissions regulators are preparing to formally adopt the California standards by the end of the year.

In a meeting today, an advisory committee will consider the procedure that other states used to adopt the California standards, projections on how it would work in Oregon, estimates of the cost and expected environmental benefits.

The new standards would take effect in 2009.

Kulongoski has maintained that adopting tough car emissions standards is crucial to stop the effects of global warming.

Transportation produces 38 percent of the greenhouse gases generated in Oregon, according to the OSPIRG report.

Many scientists contend that increased greenhouse gases globally are contributing to a warming trend.

The warming is threatening to raise the seas along Oregon's coastline, to shrivel the snowpack in Oregon mountains and to dry up the stream flow that sustains the state's salmon and agriculture, the new report said.

The debate over global warming has raged for years, but UO physics researcher Frank Vignola said most scientists are now persuaded by the evidence.

"They've got it down so they know how much heat is being added to the Earth each day. They've got good measure of that," he said.

Scientists found a 1 degree to 3 degree temperature change in the Pacific Northwest in the past 100 years. They're predicting increases of 1 degree to 5 degrees in the next 15 years.

Vignola will speak in support of the governor's embrace of the California standards at a news conference on the UO campus this morning.

"This is an easy start that's fairly painless. Other people are doing this around the country. And it has ripple effects around the world," he said.

Though Oregon is a small state with only 3.6 million residents, its decision to follow the California example will have a disproportionate effect, Silverman said.

The Washington Legislature passed a similar measure in May with a provision that the requirement would take effect only if Oregon institutes the stricter standards. Washington's participation would bring 6.2 million additional residents under the requirement.

That would create a clean car corridor from Canada to Mexico, Silverman said. Seven eastern states also opted for the California standards.

In recent weeks, OSPIRG members have led picketing and e-mail protests aimed at Ron Tonkin dealerships in Portland, which are suing the state to forestall the new standards.

TO HEAR MORE

"Cars and Global Warming': The report by the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group will be presented at 10:30 a.m. today in the Ben Linder Room at the EMU on the UO campus. UO physics researcher Frank Vignola will describe the scientific basis of global warming. State Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene, will discuss legislative support for the state's clean car initiative.