Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski just tipped over the last clean car domino on the west coast: he’s directed his Department of Ecology to draft regulations for adopting California’s clean-car standards.
This is a major step. Washington State had opted for California’s standards, provided that Oregon adopted them too. Because Canada has adopted similar standards, Oregon’s move has created a clean car corridor stretching from San Diego through northern British Columbia. Together, between California, Canada, and the northwest and northeastern states that have followed their lead, about 40 percent of the North American new car market will soon be cleaner and, if all goes well, more fuel efficient to boot. (There’s a pretty good chronology of all the political action on the car standards here, if you scroll down through our blog posts.)
