[Rob Hood]

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=128569

Article is posted in case the link is bad -

SACRAMENTO, California — The state of California will require all 2009 model and later cars to be labeled with stickers giving their global warming score, starting at the beginning of the year. The labels will rate vehicles on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being the best and 5 an average number — based on direct emissions and emissions related to fuel production, and will let consumers make comparisons between models.

California vehicles already are given a Smog Score, in which new models are rated on a 1-10 scale for emissions. The labeling will be displayed side by side on new vehicles sold in the state. Consumers can also look up detailed information on the Drive Clean Web site.

New York can expect a similar sticker law for new models starting in 2010.

What this means to you: Environmental-impact stickers: not just for refrigerators anymore.

[CrashTestDummy]

Interesting that electric cars are almost unanimously-rated a 10. It's funny how people conveniently forget that electric cars still pollute, it's just that the point source of the pollution is not in their garage, although it is usually from coal-fired generation plants.

I call this one 'Busted'.

[DanKeen]

Interesting that electric cars are almost unanimously-rated a 10. It's funny how people conveniently forget that electric cars still pollute, it's just that the point source of the pollution is not in their garage, although it is usually from coal-fired generation plants.

I call this one 'Busted'.

Actually, it says that just so on the site ("This does not take into account upstream emissions.", or something to that effect).

Also, considering this is CA, the following data shows that there is negligible coal production:

Total Electric Industry

• Coal: 0.6%
• Petroleum: 1.2%
• Natural Gas: 60.1%
• Other Gases: 0.3%
• Nuclear: 6.9%
• Hydroelectric: 16.0%
• Other Renewables: 9.0%
• Pumped Storage: 5.8%

(Sourced from http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/s...california.pdf)

That's total electric industry. If you look at just the electric utilities (and not places that are generating their own power), there's no coal production at all. The numbers are from 2006, though.

There's no reason at all to be upset about this requirement. What do you lose by having more information? Yes, it's a weird 1-10 scale, but that makes it easier for Joe Public to consume.

Give me a justification, whether you think global warming, etc is real, that scoring high on both of these numbers could be a bad thing. The whole "pollution comes from elsewhere" is a straw-man argument. Let's just stick to fossil-fueled cars. How would displaying these numbers harm you?