E.P.A. Develops Grading System for New Car Stickers
The Center for Auto Safety is the nation’s premier independent, member driven, non-profit consumer advocacy organization dedicated to improving vehicle safety, quality, and fuel economy on behalf of all drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.
By Jim Motavalli
August 30, 2010
…In an e-mail to reporters, Gloria Bergquist, an Alliance vice president, wrote, “Your spokesperson tried to give the proposal a D, but was told not to do so by her boss.” Rating it somewhat higher was Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign at the Center for Auto Safety. “Overall it’s a B,” he said in an e-mail.
Mr. Becker said he appreciated that the grading system would compare all cars against one another. But he also questioned whether battery cars were zero emission vehicles. He said that the sticker for electric cars should also take note of what are called upstream emissions, which are pollutants emitted by power plants when they produce the electricity that charges the cars. Such a system would probably require dividing the United States into separate regions because some parts of the country have higher concentrations of coal-burning plants and thus a greater upstream burden….