Senate Bill 2991 would place a public health and climate change warning label on all gas pumps in Hawaii (Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the first to legislate such a point-of-sale “warming label” in 2020). I’ll explain.
Gasoline (and diesel) is our energy miracle, gifting us a virtually unlimited capacity to cover vast distances that catalyzed global economies. It’s the market heavyweight that emerged in the early 20th Century of democratic countries; an elixir that sealed the deal of a love affair with the private automobile. In the present, gasoline is affordable, infinitely storable, and transportable. Filling up a typical gas-powered vehicle in about 4 minutes, it is super energy dense by both weight and volume, at 131.76 megajoules of energy density per gallon. The stored energy in 1 liter of gasoline equals around 100 times the energy density in comparison to the lithium-ion battery (Chevy Volt) of an electric vehicle.
Of course, this difference in energy density is partially offset by the very high efficiency of an electric motor. Towards addressing emissions from passenger and freight vehicles in Hawaii, and reaching its 2050 emissions goals, Katherine McKenzie at the University of Hawaii instructs Hawaiians will need to accelerate their adoption of electric vehicles. Problem is, it isn’t clear Americans would buy one for those reasons. But let’s consider the scale and the political complexity of this transition to EVs.
One obstacle of course, is an EV affordability problem. But another problem our research found is the public health and climate harms produced from combustion of gasoline are not well understood by the public. This, where 1 gallon of regular, non-diesel fuel when combusted, currently produces $6.50 in latent external costs to society. Majorities of Americans for instance, do not understand that burning gasoline (particularly diesel) kills more people globally from upper-respiratory disease than does smoking. Additionally, most Americans demonstrate a poor understanding of how greenhouse gases, primarily CO2, produce decades-long (i.e. permanent) damage to our climate system.
Policy that would reduce emissions too, rank near the bottom of most American’s everyday priorities. On the politics of carbon taxes in developed countries says scholar Timothy Mitchell, policymakers confront a citizenry whose lifestyles heavily depends on the use of large amounts of fossil fuel energy.
Sure, advances in EV technology are already making electric vehicles more popular. But the obstacles I’ve outlined above point to how consumers will need better information for electric vehicles to go mainstream. This is especially important since gas continues to serve our needs so well and where demand for gas, form the basis of transport emissions in the first place. Advances in EV technology alone won’t make electric vehicles — running increasingly on renewable electricity in Hawaii — a clearly better choice from a climate and public health perspective. A climate/public health warning label on all gas pumps, and possibly on all gas- powered vehicles (Sweden is doing this), would.
So how could a warming label, outlining the fossil harms from buying gas, work? In contrast to the bad news on public attitudes toward climate policy, the good news is most people hold climate change as an issue of concern. Our research found warming labels could shift public attitudes by eliciting an already-held concern about public health and climate change. Warming labels reminding gas consumers others are concerned about these issues too, helps build a greater feeling of personal responsibility. And research shows social norms marketing programs like this have a very good track record in altering people’s preferences for the long term.
James Brooks is a resident of Kapaau and founder of the Hawaii-based nonprofit Think Beyond the Pump.