By Ted Lieu
Member
California State Assembly

Like most environmentalists, I’m very proud of the leadership role that California takes in green policy. We were the first state to tackle urban smog, the first one to rid bars and nightclubs of cigarette smoke, and, as of last year, the first state to begin the process of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

But if California is going to hold our position as the world’s leader in creating a cleaner planet, we should start by making sure that our State Government is doing everything we can to keep our own house in order.

So it was with considerable interest that I learned late last year that, while the Department of General Services (DGS) has purchased over 1,100 “flex-fuel” vehicles (that can run on either gasoline or alternative fuel), virtually none of those cars have used a single drop or alternative fuel. What’s worse, the vehicles that were purchased, such as the flex-fuel Chevrolet Impala, when run on gasoline, are actually more polluting than the cars they replaced.

DGS also keeps little or no record of where cars bought with taxpayer dollars are kept, who’s using them, or what type of fuel they’re consuming. In fact, if they had looked at it, they were buying over a thousand vehicles statewide that could run on E85, when there’s only one E85 station in the entire state.

That’s why, in January of this year, I introduced Assembly Bill 236. This bill begins the process of cleaning up this mess by: requiring the Department of General Services (DGS), by the end of 2008, to purchase only highly efficient alternative fuel vehicles; mandating that those cars be run on alternative fuels by July 1, 2009; and requiring the State to come up with a plan to reduce the State’s gasoline consumption by 20% by 2020. Finally, the bill would, for the first time, record the location of cars in the State Fleet, and track their fuel use.

AB 236 was co-sponsored by CALSTART (if you’re not familiar with them, check them out at http://www.calstart.org/) and the Bluewater Network/Friends of the Earth, and gained the support of environmental and public health organizations, including the Coalition for Clean Air and the American Lung Association.

Sometimes when you introduce a bill, you benefit from a little luck on your timing. In July of this year, the San Jose Mercury News got wind of this issue, and ran a series of articles exposing the problems with the State’s “green” fleet. Suddenly what had been just an environmental bill became a BIG press issue.

After those articles ran, Senator Dean Florez held several hearings of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee to hold he Administration’s feet to the fire. Senator Florez also signed on as the principal co-author of my bill.

Well, I guess we got the Governor’s attention, because this weekend he signed AB 236 into law. I’m thrilled that the Governor has taken the principled stand that his Administration needs to clean up its own act. Now I just hope that this Administration and future ones will follow through on this commitment to make California’s state fleet the greenest in the world.

I also want to thank my good friends at CALSTART and Bluewater Network/Friends of the Earth who worked with me and my staff, and for the many other organizations who supported my bill with letters, calls, and lobbying visits. This was truly a group effort.

Assemblymember Ted Lieu represents the 53rd Assembly District, which encompasses the Southern Coastal region of Los Angeles County.