California Vote due on gas-guzzler fees

The Sacramento Bee reports:

Here's one way to combat global warming: Take $2,500 out of the pockets of new Hummer owners and give it to buyers of the Toyota Prius.

That's essentially the proposal set for a vote today or Friday on the Assembly floor of the California Legislature.

The same body that passed the nation's first law curbing climate-altering or "greenhouse" tailpipe exhausts is debating a system of fees and rebates to coax some of those emission cuts from new car buyers.

The bill by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, is considered one of the top global warming bills of the session.

The measure would require buyers of gas guzzlers, which emit high levels of greenhouse gases, to pay a surcharge of up to $2,500.

The revenue would be used to reward buyers of more fuel-efficient models with rebates of up to $2,500. The measure, Assembly Bill 493, would take effect in the 2011 model year.

"This will change many people's behavior and, more importantly, change the automakers' behavior to make cleaner cars for everybody, which is what they should have been doing all along," said Dan Kalb, policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a public health lobby that is sponsoring the legislation.

Of course, that's not how the automotive lobby sees it.

"This will penalize large families and the working men and women of California who depend on larger vehicles for their way of life," said Charles Territo, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents Detroit automakers and Toyota, among others.

The trade group ran a full-page ad Tuesday in The Bee, urging readers to tell their Assembly representatives to kill the bill, calling it a "car tax."

"Californians already pay about $1,500 in taxes when they buy a new vehicle," the ad states. "Now, the Assembly is trying to more the double that."

You could call it the anti-family vote.That's California for you.