Study: 1990 Emissions Goals Tied Too Strictly to One Technology

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 14, 2007 at 7:12 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

A new study says a 1990 California program aimed at reducing vehicle emissions may have been too ambitious. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The study by the Public Policy Institute of California says the state's zero vehicle emissions program has had some environmental benefits.

But PPIC researcher Louise Bedsworth says the program failed to get the auto industry to develop zero-emission vehicles.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Bedsworth : I think it's achieving its original, a similar benefit, environmentally, but through quite different means. And it's taken advantage of developments in technology. It's just that they're very different than what the program originally laid out -- which was a pure zero-emission vehicle. And the fact is we don't have many of those on the road today.

She says part of the problem was the zero-emission goal was tied to one technology -- battery-electric vehicles. And when that technology didn't meet performance or cost expectations, the state changed the program. She says the state can learn from those mistakes when it implements its landmark global warming regulations.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

twitter

Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

See stories by Ed Joyce