The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Fuel efficiency law proposed

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Saturday, Jul 12, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Fuel efficiency law proposed

Staff Reporter

Greenpeace continues ‘Let’s Drive Change’ campaign

It will be a win-win situation, says Greenpeace
‘Fuel efficient car benefits consumer and environment’

Bangalore: Continuing its 14-city, nationwide “Let’s Drive Change” campaign, Greenpeace made its presence felt outside the Mahatma Gandhi Statue on Mahatma Gandhi Road here on Thursday.

Two sets of volunteers in between green paper cars — “the walking green cars” — stood at the statue while other Greenpeace volunteers got people to sign petitions for efficient fuel consumption.

Demanding a mandatory fuel efficiency law, Greenpeace will present the petitions to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, which will then take steps to create the law if satisfied with the number of petitions.

The campaign, which has been running in different parts of the city, including Koramangala, Indiranagar and Church Street, tells people that a law for mandatory fuel efficiency was a win-win situation for them.

Somnath Narayan, climate campaigner, said: “There are fuel efficiency laws in China and the U.S. It is time we had one too.” He said that mileage and CO{-2} emission were inversely proportional to each other, which meant that a car with better mileage would emit less CO{-2}, making it beneficial to both — the consumer and the environment.

In the past few days, the Greenpeace campaigners, dressed as “The Climate Patrol”, issued challans to car drivers and told them that they were not getting maximum fuel efficiency from their cars and that they were polluting the air.

Mr. Narayan said 160 grams of CO{-2} were emitted every km in the country. The aim of the campaign was to promote progressive fuel efficiency and bring the number down to 80 grams a km by 2020.

“We are supporting Ajay Mathur, Director-General of The Bureau of Energy Efficiency,” say the volunteers. A team of 15 volunteers had been working in this campaign in Bangalore and hopes to drive home the point of the benefit of fuel efficiency to consumers.

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