New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine is tired of waiting for the federal government to approve California’s emission restrictions — a delay that has similar New Jersey rules on hold. So the governor is adding the state to a lawsuit filed by California and several states (New York, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington) that seeks to force the issue.
As The Record points out today,
If the permission is granted, New Jersey will require dealers to sell 168,000 hybrids and other low-emissions vehicles in 2009, and more in the future. The cleaner cars are part of a plan to reduce the pollution caused by carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent over the next 10 years. In as heavily trafficked a state as this one, that would have a lot of people breathing more easily — as well as reducing the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Vehicles account for about half the annual greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey.
This is only a drop in the greenhouse bucket, of course, but it is a start and could encourage other states to move ahead with their own tighter regulations. That, in turn, could get the federal government moving — which would make it a lot easier to convince nations in the developing world to pay attention to climate change.
In the end, global warming can only be addressed by a worldwide commitment led by the world’s biggets polluter — the United States.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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Hank Kalet 