14 DAY TRIAL // California spares no efforts to make sure that increased air quality would become a key element in a sustainable future. Its main priority is to decrease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions triggered by transportation.
New regulations seem to boost the market of electric vehicles. To do so, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) continues to favor the zero-emissions-vehicle (ZEV) sector, by announcing a new ambitious goal. The state wants to count up to 1.4 million green vehicles sold on an annual basis, from 2018 to 2025, Autobloggreen informs.
If this target were to be accomplished, California would be able to lower the alarming levels of air pollution, preventing almost 52 million metric tons of GHGs from reaching the atmosphere.
Moreover, besides encouraging the auto industry to accelerate ZEV production, the state also supports the market of alternative fuels, as important tools in fighting air pollution.
Since hydrogen-powered cars are considered to be a great asset, CARB is aware that it has to promote a larger access to appropriate refueling stations.
Therefore, The Cleans Fuels Outlet would “require oil companies to install hydrogen refueling stations. ” It is already known that eco-friendly improvements sometimes come along with a big price tag, but this seems to be an exception.
CARB has recently announced that a green infrastructure would enable drivers to save up to $22 billion (€16.88bn) otherwise spent on fuel. Moreover, a single car owner could preserve up to $4,000 (€3,069) over the entire life of his car, despite the extra costs posed by new technologies.
The expansion of the green fuel market is expected to be beneficial for the entire economy, since it would generate approximately 21,000 jobs. Nevertheless, CARB is collaborating with the Environmental Protection Agency to make sure that all the ways of improving air quality have been taken into consideration and have been properly exploited.
Both partners have announced an emissions-level limit of 166 g/km for every vehicle commercialized in the state, by 2017. This simple measure is supposed to take care of up to 34% of the emission reduction target set for 2016.
Even though the deadline is still far away, their project is already influencing the plans of automakers. Mazda, for example, knows that its new hybrid must have a zero impact on the environment so that it could be sold in the populous state of California.