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Oil Is a Dead End Road

Increased use of alternative fuels benefits our health and our wallets

As gas prices go up, the high cost of excessive petroleum consumption becomes more obvious. And we’re not simply paying the price at the pump. Environmental and health impacts touch all of us and threaten future generations: global warming, smog, air pollution, childhood asthma, thousands of premature deaths, and the environmental impact of extracting fossil fuels from the earth, to name a few. We’ve got to take steps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil supplies, improve air quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Senate Bill 494 (Kehoe) takes steps that will help reduce oil consumption by getting more clean air vehicles on the road. The bill, which would enact the “Foreign Oil Independence Act of 2007,” will expand the market for more environmentally friendly alternative fuels by requiring that half of new cars and light trucks sold in California be alternatively fueled by 2020. The result—new and stronger vehicle standards to reduce air pollution.

SB 494 takes steps to expand California’s market for alternatively fueled vehicles:

• The bill requires the California Air Resource Board (ARB) to adopt and implement emissions standards, performance standards, and fuel specifications to control sources of air pollution.
• The bill ensures that cleaner alternative fuel will be made available at retail outlets when a sufficient number of alternative fuel motor vehicles are produced.

SB 494 will help enforce an existing law that requires the state to report on its progress adopting clean energy technology. Let’s reduce transportation costs—in the short term and the long term—and lead the nation in encouraging automakers to produce more clean energy cars.

What You Can Do

SB 494 has passed out of the State Senate and will now be considered in the Assembly. Please urge your Assemblymember to vote yes on SB 494.

See our sample letters and send one to your Assemblymember!

Your Assemblymember
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: (916) 319-20_ _
Fax: (916) 319-21_ _
(fill in the last two digits with your Assembly district number)