Due to the money involved and potential to help pay for bike projects the EBBC and/or CBC may want to weigh in on this bill.
AB493 (Ruskin) is the brainchild of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The UCS has been pushing for improvements in automobile technology (i.e. electric cars hybrids etc) rather than programs to reduce automobile dependence. AB493 implements a rebate program (through the California Air Resources Board) to subsidize the purchase of hybrid and other high-mileage cars.
To pay for the rebates AB493 would implement a surcharge of up to $2500 on newly purchased gas-guzzlers. Thus the program is somewhat like a free-market trading system for global warming gases a type of scheme opposed by some environmental groups.
The UCS has produced a chart showing a sampling of proposed tax/rebates.
If you consult the chart you may note that there is no mention of bicycles in the chart. Thus buyer of a $30k Toyota Prius (106 grams/km CO2 gas) would be eligible for a $2500 rebate whereas the buyer of a zero-emission bicycle gets nothing.
Other than being unfair to bicyclists pedestrians and transit users won’t this program accomplish some good by promoting fuel-efficient cars? Maybe maybe not. As California’s population continues to grow outer ex-urbs are being built out on an automobile-dependent model — and subsidizing the purchase of cars (even fuel-efficient cars) could make that problem worse. So even as California’s fuel economy improves those gains are more than offset by the increase in vehicle miles. In the last 30 years vehicles miles in California has gone from 80 billion to 180 billion per year.
Note also that the Air Resources Board already has authority to regulate CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. Landmark legislation passed last year grants it broad powers in that area. Last week’s Supreme Court ruling upheld this authority. This raises the question as to whether it makes sense to be legislating a trading program in CO2 rather than to leave those types of decisions to ARB staff and scientists.
How about a better solution: give ARB authority to tax gas-guzzlers and use the revenue to fund the existing backlog of ARB projects. Otherwise it will be hundreds of years before the Bay Area completes its bicycle and pedestrian plans.