From 2007 to 2009, Environment Illinois and its allies pushed for Illinois to adopt California's ground-breaking standards regulating global warming pollution from the tailpipes of automobiles sold in Illinois.  The Illinois Clean Cars Act, sponsored by State Representative Karen May, had the support of over 151 groups and nearly 40 other state representatives. 

While we never broke through the gridlock in Springfield, success finally came on the federal level -- in September 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed standards mandating nationwide rules similar to those adopted by California and 13 other states.  These new standards will begin with model year 2012, meaning that Illinois residents will soon benefit from cleaner cars, cleaner air, better fuel efficiency, and a decreased dependence on foreign oil. 

Emissions from transportation sources, primarily automobile tailpipes, accounts for about one-third of Illinois’s global warming pollution. The fastest way to address this pollution is by setting tailpipe emission standards that get cleaner, more efficient cars on our roads.  

The Illinois Clean Cars Act, introduced in 2007-2009, directed Illinois EPA to adopt the Clean Car Program to reduce emissions of smog-forming pollution and greenhouse gases. Fourteen states constituting more than forty percent of the U.S. automobile market had already adopted the Clean Car Program, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Maryland, California, Oregon, and Washington.

But despite the support of a coalition of 151 groups and the full support of the environmental community, support for the Illinois Clean Cars Act fell short of the 60 votes to pass the Illinois House. 

In September 2009, prompted many states moving forward with aggressive standards and states like Illinois considering doing the same, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation proposed the first-ever uniform standards to improve fuel economy and reduce global warming pollution from new passenger vehicles.  The standards largely mirror those already adopted by California and 13 other states. 

The proposed standards follow from an announcement by President Obama in May 2009 of an agreement, supported by the world’s largest automakers, the United Auto Workers, California and other states, EPA, and the Department of Transportation, to establish standards to reduce global warming pollution from new vehicles by 30 percent and achieve an average fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.  The standards will apply to cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty passenger vehicles, which are responsible for almost 60 percent of all U.S. transportation-related global warming emissions, and will cover model years 2012 through 2016.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, these new standards carry the following benefits:

• Reducing U.S. oil consumption by about 1.3 million barrels per day by 2020, nearly as much as we currently import from Saudi Arabia;
• Cutting global warming emissions by 217 million metric tons in 2020, the equivalent of taking nearly 32 million of today's cars and light trucks off the road that year; and
  
• Saving drivers $26 billion in 2020 based on a gas price of $2.25 per gallon, even after they pay the cost of vehicle technology improvements. (If gas prices spike to $4 a gallon again, the new standards would save drivers $60 billion in 2020.)