Mark Strama and Rodney Ellis want you to breathe

State Representative Mark Strama and State Senator Rodney Ellis are teaming up on legislation that would require cars in Texas to meet more stringent emissions standards with legislation similar to California state law. It places the onus for compliance on the automakers rather than requiring state resources to get a cleanup operation underway. The alternative currently being kicked around by Republican lawmakers would also require the use of state resources: they would like to expand a program that encourages people to get their older cars off the road, or to repair or retrofit their cars to meet current emissions standards.

I would argue that the Strama-Ellis initiative is the more environmentally responsible of the two programs because it has a longer view on the problem. By requiring lower emissions and advanced technology of automakers in Texas, the industry would be facing an incentive to undertake large scale alterations of production, because two of the largest markets in the country for automobiles would require them. Might that not move the overall production and engineering practices of the largest automakers towards entire lines that are better for the environment?

The increased fuel efficiency would probably result in overall price increases to automobiles, but supporters of the bill argue that increased fuel efficiency would offset that cost, and it is reasonable to think they are right. Getting old cars up to code or off the road will help, but that argument as a long-term strategy is self-defeating. Those cars will be replaced entirely as time goes on, and if measures aren't taken to encourage low emissions in vehicles being produced today, then tomorrow's old cars will suffer the same relative problem, and repairing or replacing them will be yet another thing for the state to subsidize.

My wife told me something interesting she learned the other day - in the D/FW area, there have only been three days where the air quality / ozone levels were "good," since the system was put in place to measure such a thing. Those three days were September 12, 13, and 14, in 2001, when people weren't really driving anywhere and air traffic was grounded. Apparently people were paranoid about why the air "smelled weird" and feared the worst. There was nothing in the air, though. It was just starting to clear up.