In the ongoing saga of California’s embattled “Cool Cars” regulations that would have been finalized on May 7 of this year, the public safety argument has trumped the environmental argument.
The regulations — which would have required automakers to put a layer of reflective material on most of the glass in cars to reduce air conditioner use and increase fuel economy — first came under a barrage of fire from half a dozen or so public safety, police, and transportation associations claiming the reflective layer would disrupt everything from tracking of GPS-braceleted criminals, to dropped 911 calls, to an inability to track EZ-Pass customers. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) followed up on this criticism by sheepishly saying it would reconsider the impending final rules.
And now CARB has decided decided to scrap the “Cool Cars” rules entirely and start over from scratch trying to to get the various stakeholders to buy in much earlier in the process.