Regional Variations
As automakers begin to understand and embrace the program, you'll begin to hear a lot about it in ads and promotions by those manufacturers whose cars have earned SmartWay status. This will be especially true if you live in California or one of the other four states that utilize California Air Resources Board (CARB) tailpipe emissions standards: Massachusetts, Maine, New York and Vermont.
Why these five states? Simply put, CARB's tougher emissions standards mean cars that are California-compliant are more apt to qualify for SmartWay.
But even if you live in one of the other 45 federal-emissions states, you'll still have SmartWay choices. There are several "45-state" cars that qualify outright. And many manufacturers don't actually produce two different emissions systems for the same vehicle; instead, they sell the California emissions setup in all 50 states. Finally, federal law says that if you live in a state bordering the five that dictate CARB emissions standards (Arizona, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island), your local dealer is allowed to sell you a CARB-spec car.
In order to find out which cars have earned SmartWay and SmartWay Elite recognition, go to www.epa.gov/greenvehicles. Here you'll find a series of links that explain the ratings and a link you can click to look up a specific vehicle, view a specific class of vehicles or see the entire 2007 fleet.
As this is written, several automaker marketing departments we spoke with were barely aware of the emerging SmartWay program. But we expect them to catch on soon. A refresh of the EPA's Green Vehicle Guide Web site is due to roll out shortly and the PR campaign will be ramped up. An important extra push came recently when a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave the EPA the power to regulate CO2 as a pollutant.
But the SmartWay program focuses solely on the end-user experience after both fuel and vehicle have been delivered to market. The ecological merits or pitfalls of capturing and refining a particular fuel or building a certain type of automobile technology are not addressed. These complex topics are harder to grasp and their waters muddied by competing alternative-fuel lobbying efforts and PR campaigns. A widely acceptable rating metric for the "before-market" aspect of the green story has yet to emerge.
Expect the buzz about SmartWay to grow quickly in the near future. And stay ahead of the wave by visiting the EPA's Green Vehicle Guide the next time you are shopping for a new car.