Senator McKinney’s Clean Car Bill Sails Through Senate

Senator John McKinney, R-Fairfield, today announced that legislation he co-sponsored to create stricter emission standards on automobiles has unanimously passed the State Senate. According to Sen. McKinney, the measure would require the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to implement California’s Low Emission Vehicle program that would increase motor vehicle emission standards that go beyond the current minimum federal standard.

According to Sen. McKinney, neighboring states such as Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Vermont and Maine have already adopted the California standard. “Air quality standards are a regional concern and not just limited to Connecticut,” said Sen. McKinney. “Passage of the clean cars legislation is an important step in improving our air quality and, as a consequence, improving the public health of our citizens.”

Sen. McKinney said that the legislation would require all new cars and light trucks sold in Connecticut to meet the new emission standard beginning with the 2008 model year vehicle. In addition, the bill requires that up to 10% of cars sold in Connecticut must be Zero Emissions Vehicles (ZEV’s) although only 2% of that 10% must be strictly ZEV’s while the remaining 8% can be made up of partial ZEV’s.

“Adopting the new standards would not create a burden on automobile manufacturers because these cars are already being built. But it would create an emission standards that goes beyond the requirements of the federal standards in state where over 10% of our children have asthma,” said Sen. McKinney, who serves as Ranking Member of the legislature’s Environment Committee. “A lot of the air quality problems that Connecticut experiences come from other states. The northeast is highly populated region, thus we need to take every measure feasible to make our air quality healthier. By implementing this measure we can begin to remove over 130 tons of toxins and pollutants from the air.”