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On March 25, 2010 ARB announced that all rulemaking on the Cool
Cars regulation has ceased. It was determined that insufficient
time remained on the rulemaking calendar to achieve consensus on
the rule, particularly with regard to perceived problems with
metallic glazing and the operation of cell phones and GPS ankle
bracelets.  Because consensus could not be reached within the
timeframe required, the 15-day Notice for Cool Cars will not be
issued.  The result is that the Cool Cars regulation, while
approved by the Board in June 2009, will not become law. 


In its place staff will work to incorporate a performance-based
approach to cooling vehicle interiors into the next iteration of
the light-duty motor vehicle greenhouse gas regulations for 2017
and later model years.  This next phase of the motor vehicle
greenhouse gas emission regulations will be linked with the
formerly separate standards setting specific toxic and criteria
tailpipe emissions limits (Low Emission Vehicle or LEV standards)
into a single regulatory framework for advanced clean cars.  

 

The regulation for the advanced clean cars (also known as
LEVIII) is expected be presented to the Board during a hearing
later this year, with the new greenhouse gas portion phasing-in
with the 2017 model year.  At this time, it is unclear what form
the performance-based approach to cooling vehicle interiors will
take in the new rules.  As a result, all activity by the Cool
Cars performance option workgroups will cease. Instead, the
public may participate in the development of the performance
metric for cooling vehicle interiors as part of the regulatory
development for advanced clean cars. 

 

If you are interested in being notified of upcoming workshops
for the greenhouse gas portion of this regulation, including the
vehicle-interior cooling performance metric, please join the
Low-Emission Vehicle Program (levprog) listserv at
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/levprog/leviii/leviii.htm. 

 

If you have further questions regarding the cessation of the
Cool Cars regulation or the incorporation of the vehicle-interior
cooling performance option into the development of a regulation
for advanced cleaner cars, please feel free to contact Marijke
Bekken (mbekken@arb.ca.gov , 775-762-1771) or Leela Rao
(lrao@arb.ca.gov , 626-350-6469).