Bringing Clean Cars to Illinois

Illinois and other Midwest states are moving to adopt tough new standards to reduce pollution, benefiting the region’s health and reducing global warming pollution-while also improving the area’s economy. Illinois has the opportunity to lead the Midwest in ensuring all new passenger cars and light-duty trucks will emit lower levels of global warming and other air pollutants while improving public health, and saving Illinois consumers money at the pump. ELPC is part of a coalition of groups fighting to win adoption of standards requiring auto manufacturers to build cleaner cars.

Joe Shacter is taking a lead role in ELPC’s work on clean cars. “The clean car initiative is very simple,” Joe says. “It is the question of Illinois adopting California’s vehicle emission standards. States can either adopt the California program or stick with the federal standards. California’s program is significantly more strict, and has been adopted by over 40 percent of the new car market.” The clean car program would regulate many types of pollution, but it is the first that would regulate the carbon dioxide from vehicles that causes global warming pollution.

Learn more about CleanCarsIllinois in this brief video interview with Joe: