California’s Auto Crackdown Reinforced by Road Emissions Uptick
- Motorists drive more, abandon public transit amid cheap gas
- Governor has vowed to be bulwark on environmental deregulation
Vehicles move along the Interstate 405 freeway during rush hour in this aerial photograph taken over the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Friday, July 10, 2015. The greater Los Angeles region routinely tops the list for annual traffic statistics of metropolitan areas for such measures as total congestion delays and congestion delays per peak-period traveler.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergCalifornia’s advocates for fuel economy standards and zero-emission vehicle mandates should toughen their rules, according to a non-profit that said road emissions have undercut the state’s efforts to reduce pollution.
Emissions from on-road transportation rose by the equivalent of 4.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2015 from a year earlier, the San Francisco-based non-profit Next 10 said Monday. Motorists traveled more and some may have abandoned public transportation as gasoline prices fell, according to the group’s report, which found the the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions dropped at less than half the rate of the prior year.