Yesterday, the Governors of thirteen states,
including New Mexico’s Governor Richardson, released an open letter to
the CEOs of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Nissan,
asserting their commitment to forge ahead with state Clean Car programs
and urging the auto manufacturers to withdraw their legal challenges of
the program.
We applaud this action and
commend the Governors for standing up to powerful special interests in
order to address the critical threat of global warming. This is an
important step forward in our work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and bring cleaner cars to New Mexico’s roads.
The
Clean Cars program is a cost-effective, common sense approach to
reducing global warming emissions, while also reducing traditional air
pollution, saving consumers money at the pump and lessening our
dependence on oil.
The transportation sector
is the second largest source of global warming emissions nationally.
The twelve states that have already adopted this program represent
approximately 35 percent of the U.S. population and will reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 74 million metric tons by 2020,
under the program.
In their letter, the
Governors noted, “we do not believe it is productive for your industry
to continue to fight state implementation of clean tailpipe standards…
we ask that you withdraw your legal challenges to clean vehicle
standards and begin working with us to meet our joint obligations to
begin reversing the threat of global warming.” They went on to say,
“Your companies are on record as supporting efforts to combat climate
change. Selling cars that meet the clean car standards is a major step
in fulfilling your commitment.”
Again, we
applaud Governor Richardson and the other Governors for this bold
statement in support of this critical policy. We will continue to work
to ensure that New Mexico is the next state to bring these cleaner cars
to its roads.
The full letter from the
Governors is attached. The Governors included: Governor Napolitano
(Arizona), Governor Schwarzenegger (California), Governor Rell
(Connecticut), Governor Baldacci (Maine), Governor O’Malley (Maryland),
Governor Patrick (Massachusetts), Governor Richardson (New Mexico),
Governor Spitzer (New York), Governor Kulongoski (Oregon), Governor
Rendell (Pennsylvania), Governor Carcieri (Rhode Island), Governor
Huntsman (Utah) and Governor Gregoire (Washington).
