California received an early Christmas present from Washington today in the form of a waiver for our Zero Emission Vehicle regulations. "With this waiver, California and the other ten states that have adopted our ZEV regulations can expect emission-free vehicles powered by fuel cells or batteries on their roads starting by 2009."

The waiver also allows California to enforce its requirement for other near zero technologies, such as hybrid electric vehicles or the increasingly popular Partial Zero Emission Vehicles (PZEVs)." These gasoline powered vehicles are armed with the world’s cleanest tailpipe standard, zero evaporative emission technology and a 15 year, 150,000 mile warranty on emission control equipment." Already, there are hundreds of thousands of these popular, modest priced cars on the roads and this waiver assures us of millions more within the next few years."

This is a real Christmas gift for all of us. " All Californians will breathe easier because of this measure and the technology that makes these clean cars possible can now be made available to everyone."

Dr. Robert Sawyer,

Chairman,

California Air Resources Board