The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was accused of betraying his green credentials recently after the state slashed its targets for zero-emission vehicles by around 70% and lessened the requirement for hydrogen-powered vehicles on its roads.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) yesterday revised the target to just 7,500 vehicles, a 70% reduction and the move is the latest in a series of drastic erosions of the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) programme, which stipulated that 10% of cars made by the country’s main manufacturers should be emission-free by 2003.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth complained that the state has bowed to car manufacturers by weakening a mandate, set five years ago, for at least 25,000 electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles to be on California’s roads by 2014.
While it is noted that CARB is a state agency independent of Schwarzenegger, campaigners have been disappointed by the former movie star’s failure to take a public stand on the ZEV issue before the board’s decision – given his otherwise noisy advocacy of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
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