Climate 411

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

New York City suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion in the country, costing workers and businesses billions of dollars a year in lost time, and heavily contributing to New York’s nearly worst-in-the-nation air quality. One in eight New Yorkers suffer from asthma. And New York is expected to add one million residents by 2030.

New York State charged a commission of elected officials, and environmental and planning experts with solving New York City’s traffic crisis. Andy Darrell, Regional Director for Living Cities at Environmental Defense, was one of the commissioners. Today the commission voted to approve an historic plan to protect New Yorkers’ health.

A key element of the plan is congestion pricing, where an electronically-collected fee system charges drivers more for using the most congested roads at the most congested times. This encourages drivers to instead use mass transit or to reschedule their trip. Cities around the world are successfully using congestion pricing to reduce traffic and pollution from vehicle exhausts.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

Just before Christmas – after two years of stalling – the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied California’s request to set its own, tougher vehicle-emissions standards. In denying the request, EPA Administrator Johnson said:

The Bush Administration is moving forward with a clear national solution – not a confusing patchwork of state rules – to reduce America’s climate footprint from vehicles."

What’s wrong with this statement? Well, among other things, the word "patchwork". Under the Clean Air Act, there are only two possible standards for motor vehicles:

1. Federal standards
2. California standards, which are tougher than federal standards and other states may adopt.

A choice between two options is hardly a "confusing patchwork". So where did this idea come from?

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This post is by Andy Darrell, Regional Director for the Living Cities program at Environmental Defense.

There are way too many cars in New York City – no question about that. Congestion pricing – charging a fee to cars entering the city – is a simple and effective solution.

But some people weren’t so sure about this when Mayor Bloomberg first proposed the plan. So last summer, a commission – on which I serve – was formed to study the issue and make recommendations.

Today, after six months of intensive research, public hearings and debate, we released a draft of our recommendations. And we want your feedback.

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This post is by Vickie Patton, Deputy General Counsel at Environmental Defense, and a former attorney in the EPA’s General Counsel’s office.

Two lawsuits were filed today against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which sits in San Francisco. The first lawsuit was filed by California, and the second by several environmental organizations – Environmental Defense, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Conservation Law Foundation, and the International Center for Technology Assessment.

The lawsuits challenge EPA’s denial of California’s request for a preemption waiver under the Clean Air Act to implement the state’s landmark standards for greenhouse gas emissions – requests that have been granted by EPA over 50 times in the past 40 years [PDF].

The EPA’s decision relies on a flawed argument that the federal courts already have rejected and are likely to reject again.

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This post is by Mel Peffers, Air Quality Project Manager at Environmental Defense.

Many people idle their car engine in winter because they think it needs time to warm up. Not true! Today’s fuel-injected engines don’t need a warm-up period, and idling for long periods can lead to excessive engine wear.

Worse, cars idling for over 10 seconds use more gas and create more global warming pollution than simply restarting the engine. Surprised? It’s true. The 10-second rule has been proven empirically.

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