photo by MICHAEL PARRISH

NEWS STORY Think Globally, Drive Locally Portland's love of recycling and bike lanes is helping curb greenhouse-gas emissions. But what about our infatuation with Ford Explorers and other gas hogs? BY PATTY WENTZ pwentz@wweek.com

The United States has yet to ratify the Kyoto Protocol from last year's summit. It calls for a 7 percent reduction of 1990 emissions levels by 2015.       California recently became the first state to hold SUVs and light trucks to the same strict pollution limits imposed on passenger cars.

While City Commissioner Erik Sten was in Buenos Aires last week bragging about Portland's good work in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, thousands of Rose City residents were undermining his efforts by merrily driving their sport utility vehicles around town. Sten and 12 other local government delegates from around the world were sent to the fourth United Nations conference on climate change by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. They were there to show how simple changes in consumption and disposal can significantly reduce the greenhouse gases a city generates. Sten had plenty to brag about. In 1993, Portland was the first city in the country to adopt a greenhouse-gas reduction program. Since then, we've reduced the gases 3 percent from 1990 levels, thanks to our recycling, mass-transit, tree-planting and weatherization projects. At that rate, we're well ahead of the federal goals. Portland's gains this decade are all the more impressive given another trend that has occurred during the same time: the rise of SUVs. Thanks to the explosive popularity of these fuel-guzzling station-wagon replacements, we're releasing carbon dioxide--the main contributor to global warming--into the atmosphere at an increasing rate. Nationally, emissions attributed to transportation have steadily risen from 20 million tons of carbon dioxide in 1990 to 21.1 million in 1996 and show no sign of slowing. Several factors contribute to this, but one problem is that sport utility vehicles have slipped through a loophole in the federal fuel-efficiency standards that's big enough to drive a Bronco through. When the gas-mileage standards were set in the 1970s, SUV owners were more likely to be plumbers than mothers, and there weren't very many of them. So SUVs were rated as work vehicles rather than as cars--with a low required fuel-efficiency rate of only 20.4 miles per gallon. Cars have to meet 28.5 mpg. According to Sten, increasing fuel-efficiency standards is one of the main ways the federal government can lead the way in reducing global warming. Instead, some government officials are denying there is a problem or arguing about who should fix it if there is one. Sten says that while he was in Buenos Aires, he was embarrassed to be associated with a U.S. congressional delegation that refused to admit there is a problem. Not only is the United States the world's biggest contributor to greenhouse gases, Sten says, but we seem to be the least likely to do anything about it.   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published November 18, 1998