California Urged to Push for Zero Emissions Vehicles

Environmental groups are ratcheting up pressure on California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Air Resources Board to revive the state's program for Zero Emissions Vehicles, otherwise known as electric cars, immediately.

Cosigned by an array of environmental, civic, and business leaders that includes James Woolsey, former director of the CIA, and Ze'ev Drori, CEO of electric car company Tesla Motors, today's letter urges Schwarzenegger to fulfill his pledge to "turn back the clock on pollution" on the eve of a vote by the California Air Resources Board on March 27 to revise its ZEV program. The program once called for 10 percent of vehicles sold in California to be zero emissions.

The new revision threatens to slash that number, requiring each of America's major automakers to produce about 150 ZEVs per year through 2015. The proposal "will profoundly weaken the program again instead of propelling our country toward a pollution-free future," the letter says.

— Bret Schulte