California Clean Car Discount
AB 1212 (Ruskin)
California can significantly reduce global warming pollution by making cleaner cars and trucks more affordable for everyone. 
The California Clean Car Discount or Feebate program would do that by providing one-time rebates on the purchase of new cars, trucks
and SUVs that emit relatively low levels of global warming pollution. The rebates are funded by one-time surcharges on high-polluting,
gas-guzzling new vehicles.
Transportation is California’s #1 Source of Global Warming Pollution
Transportation is California’s single largest source of the pollution that causes global warming, accounting for 38 percent of the state’s emissions.
If global warming continues at its current rate, California will face a sharp rise in extreme heat, a less reliable water supply, and decreased air quality—with significant detrimental impacts on public health and our economy. Fortunately, we can avoid the worst consequences of global warming by reducing emissions in time.
Moving Forward with Clean Vehicles
In 2008, California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted the Climate Change Scoping Plan to implement a suite of policies and regulations for AB 32—California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. In the plan, CARB expressed its intention to move forward with a vehicle Feebate program as a backstop to the clean car standards pursuant to AB 32. Further, CARB committed to exploring the potential merits of a Feebate program for California as a market-oriented complement to the vehicle standards.
California’s vanguard approach to controlling global warming pollution includes its landmark law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles. Lawsuits from the auto industry and opposition from the previous administration in D.C. have delayed implementation of these clean car standards. Now, even though the Obama administration may soon grant California its needed waiver to implement the standards, lawsuits are still pending and the clean car standards will likely need to be supplemented with additional pollution reduction measures.
How a Clean Car Discount Program Works
If a Clean Car Discount, or Feebate, program is passed by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor, CARB would be authorized to provide Californians rebates on the purchase of cleaner cars, minivans, and SUVs. The amount of the rebate is based on how much global warming pollution the vehicle emits—the less pollution, the higher the rebate.
Funding for clean vehicle rebates would come from one-time surcharges on new gas-guzzling vehicles sold in California that emit high levels of global warming pollution, with the program designed to be self-financing.
AB 1212
AB 1212 (Ruskin) would authorize CARB to design and establish a self-financing feebate program only if it finds that implementing such a program would be beneficial to meeting the cap on global warming pollution under AB 32. Furthermore, it would specifically direct CARB to establish such a program if the existing clean car standards are either set aside or substantially delayed.
Californians Support a Clean Car Discount
According to a 2006 poll, 60 percent of registered California voters supported a feebates program, with an overwhelming majority from every region, income level, and political affiliation indicating support¹. A 2008 poll saw public support for feebates rise to 66 percent².
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¹ Fairbanks, Maslin, Maullin, and Associates, 2006 2 Mineta Transportation Institute, 2008 Clean Car Discount (Feebates)
² Mineta Transportation Institute, 2008
