The people of California are attempting once again to reduce air pollution in their state. California legislation is looking at ways to make pollution from cars less threatening to the levels of greenhouse gases. A rumor began that California was banning the use of black cars in 2012, after legislations admitted to the possibility of mandating the use of a UV-reflecting paint for auto mobiles. While banning black cars in California is not entirely true as of yet, California legislation is trying to do more to clean up the air by directing their focus on cars.The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is a branch of the California Environmental Protection Agency, who reports to the Governor’s office. Their mission is “To promote and protect public health, welfare and ecological resources through the effective and efficient reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering the effects on the economy of the state.” Two of their goals include providing safe, clean air to all Californians and reducing California’s emission of greenhouse gases. It was suggested in March 2009 that an effort can be made to lower the number of greenhouse gases emitted from vehicles in California by applying a special reflective paint to the vehicles as well as requiring all windows to be glazed with a special substance.

Both special paint and glaze would be applied to the vehicle during the manufacturing process, and all manufacturers and body shops would be required to carry them. The contents of this reflective paint, or “cool paint” as it referred to, includes special reflective chemicals mixed with automobile paint, which is then traditionally applied to the vehicle. All windows in each vehicle will need to be glazed with a solar reflective material as well. Both of these new actions will help vehicles meet a 20% solar reflectivity goal, and CARB claims these two additional measures could reduce the temperature of the vehicle around 4 degrees Celsius. Read the rest of this entry »