Ecology Center

The Ecology Center's Clean Car Campaign - aimed at promoting the production and sale of greener vehicles - has moved forward on a number of fronts since it was kicked off this past summer.

First, we launched a new website (www.cleancarcampaign.org) which will be used to collect clean car pledges and to provide important background information about the campaign and its activities. The site is jointly managed by the Ecology Center and the other coordinating organizations of the Campaign.

Second, we've also joined forces with two additional campaign partners: Great Lakes United (GLU), a bi-national organization that advocates for protection and restoration of the Great Lakes ecosystem, and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a national environmental organization with extensive experience on transportation, global warming, and automotive technology issues. UCS is leading the effort in California to preserve that state's groundbreaking Zero Emission Vehicle (or ZEV) program, which requires that 10% of auto sales must be be zero-, or near-zero-emission vehicles by the end of 2003.

Third, Ecology Center staff have been engaging representatives of the auto industry, to inform them of the campaign's goals, and to explore areas of common ground. After all, a key goal of the campaign is to promote the purchase of vehicles auto makers say they would like to produce, if they could be sure that consumers would buy them. This also requires that auto makers provide more comprehensive environmental information about their vehicles, so that an assessment can be made about how well they match up to the campaign's Clean Car Standard.

Finally, in addition to our focus on collecting consumer pledges to buy clean cars, we have also been working with fleet buyers. If institutional purchasers of vehicles - such as municipal and state governments - could be brought together to demand clean cars, an even stronger signal would be sent to auto company decision-makers.

Watch for more announcements early next year, and come hear E Magazine editor Jim Motavalli speak about his new book on clean cars at the Ecology Center's Annual Meeting on January 23. See you there!

The Ecology Center's Charles Griffith recently conducted two interviews with National Public Radio's Great Lakes Radio Consortium about the Clean Car Campaign.. You can hear those stories on the Internet at www.glrc.org/story.php3?story_id=35. For more information on the Clean Car Campaign, call Charles Griffith or Jeff Gearhart at (734) 663-2400 ext. 116 or 117, or send an email to info@cleancarcampaign.org.

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