SUV Group Launches 'Climate Clown Corps' Campaign to Protest Regulation

CA Air Resources Board Regulation Puts SUVs & Pickups in Crosshairs

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SUVOA's Ron DeFore is Barnstorming California the Week of August 1, Traveling from San Diego to Sacramento and Several Stops Between

LOS ANGELES and SAN DIEGO and SACRAMENTO and FRESNO-BAKERSFIELD, Calif., Aug. 2 -- SUV Owners of America (SUVOA) is taking to California airwaves and print this week to protest the harmful and dangerous effects of proposed regulation by the California Air Resources Board. SUVOA's ads employ humor -- in the form of clowns starring in ads on drive-time radio and in USA Today (California editions) -- to drive home the no-chance odds the regulation will achieve its stated objective (reducing global climate emissions), while underscoring the rule's costly and deadly side-effects. In short, the regulation would downsize many vehicles, make larger SUVs and pickups hard-to-find and less useful, and drive up vehicle cost.

"Who hasn't been to the circus and seen the routine where clowns cram into tiny cars -- so who better to show Californians how to squeeze into small vehicles than a corps of clowns?" said Barry McCahill, president of SUVOA. "Coming soon to California dealerships: 'Squeezy the Climate Clown' to help consumers learn how to fit into their next car!

"We are debuting the absurd Climate Clown Corps campaign to fittingly illustrate the folly of this approach," noted McCahill, a retired former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) official now living in Eagle, Idaho. "But the negative consequences of this mistake-in-the-making are no laughing matter. NHTSA and other studies demonstrate that downsizing vehicles in the past has resulted in thousands more deaths and tens of thousands more injuries."

Directed by a new California law, CARB is proposing regulations to drastically reduce global climate emissions from personal vehicles, chiefly carbon dioxide (CO2) -- despite the fact that any reduction in CO2 from California vehicles will be far overwhelmed by rising emissions elsewhere, particularly China. Unlike smog (ground-level ozone) emissions, there is NO catalytic-converter type technology to reduce CO2. The ONLY way to do so is to burn less fuel. Consequently, the regulation takes direct aim at California farmers, families, carpoolers, boaters, horse riders and others who want and need SUVs and pickups that deliver seating capacity, power and utility.