Once again, New Hampshire stood out, and not in a good way. Earlier this week, to illustrate a story on the Trump administration’s rollback of federal vehicle mileage standards set during the Obama administration, the Washington Post published a map of the United States. It highlighted California, which has said it will require automakers to meet the 50 miles-per-gallon goal for 2026, and the dozen states pledged to follow Golden State rules rather than the diminished federal standards.
Unsurprisingly, every West Coast state plus Colorado agreed to the tougher standards, as did every East Coast state from the District of Columbia and Maryland north – except New Hampshire. Why?
Could it be, as a spokesperson for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers warned, that consumers in search of gas guzzlers will flock to the nearest state with the lower federal standards? They could make a day or a weekend of it, and fill their new gas hog with low-price liquor, cigarettes and sales-tax-free products.
New Hampshire lawmakers should act to avoid this potentially ugly scenario and join the states that will hew to the tougher standards. As the state’s own Department of Environmental Services reports on its website, “Each gallon of gasoline burned releases approximately 20 pounds of CO2 (carbon dioxide) thus the quantity of CO2 emitted is directly related to the amount of fuel consumed. The lower the fuel economy (miles per gallon) the more CO2 is produced per mile driven.
… At this time the only way to reduce CO2 emissions from motor vehicles is to increase fuel efficiency.”