Ｓｈａｒｅ Ｉｎｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎ ａｃｒｏｓｓ ｔｈｅ Ｐａｃｉｆｉｃ Ｏｃｅａｎ

Ms. Margo Tsirigotis Oge， Di-rector of Office of Transpor-tation and Air Quality， Envi-ronmental Protection Agency of UnitedStates \"flew across the Pacific Oceanto share the experiences and exchangeinformation with China\". That was whatshe said when interviewed by China'sForeign Trade. Yes， to join the Interna-tional Forum on Chinese AutomotiveIndustry Development was an importantstage to make communications acrossthe countries and continents.

US Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) has been cooperatedwith Beijing Environmental ProtectionBureau (EPB) for 5 years especiallyin 4 programs: clean fuels， complaintshandling， clean engine and clean trucks，buses and diesel What's her experi-ences to share?

Ms. Oge said that China is facingenormous opportunities in the begin-ning of the 21st Century， which manyobservers are already calling \"theChinese Century\". Following theseopportunities come challenges and re-sponsibilities. The vehicle populationin Beijing alone continues to grow bynearly 1，000 units a day. The Chinesepassenger vehicle market is now theworld's second only to the U.S.， and it isforecast that car sales in China will sur-pass the U.S. by 2025. It's critical andurgent for China to act.

She shared lessons learned fromregulating air pollution from vehicles inthe United States. Those principles arealso very important to China's futureair-pollution control programs.

First， the important role of govern-ment. It is extremely unlikely marketforces alone will bring about majortransformations in the area of environ-mental protection. Profit-driven marketshave few reasons to pay attention to ex-ternal issues of social importance， suchas ensuring clean air for public health.Only government can step in with man-dates that ensure the greater good ofsociety that is being looked after.

Second， regulations should stimu-late technological innovation. The U.S.set a high bar， pushing the industry toexceed its current limits. Complaintsmay received at beginning， but in factthe car industry has not only exceededevery standard they've set， and alsomanaged to make automobiles that arehigher performing and new featurescome every year. There is no better wayto add motivation than with the mandateof achieving new policy standards.

Third， the rules must be evenly en-forced. When government intervenesin the marketplace， it must ensure alevel playing field. Enforcement must bestrong but even-handed. Everybody fol-lows the same set of rules. Governmentmust not favor any one company overanother， but must ensure all competitorsmeet the standards. There needs to bedefinite consequences for those compa-nies that don't comply.

Four， standard should be perfor-mance-based and flexible. Rather thanspecifying how to accomplish ourobjectives， we should set the standardsand let companies determine how tobest meet them. Meanwhile give leadtime and provide flexibilities to helpbusinesses meet their compliance bur-dens.

Five， regulating vehicles and fu-els as a system. Maximum emissionreductions and cost-effectiveness areachieved when regulations take a \"sys-tems approach\"-addressing vehiclesand fuels simultaneously.

Following those five guiding prin-ciples， a 154o-1 benefit-to-cost ratiocould be received. And the most im-portant is to ACT!

There is a special note on Ms. Oge's name card， reading Printed with soyink on 100% postconsumer recycledpaper， process chlorine free. From thisspecial sentence， we can find that do-ing environmental protection is justaround ourselves. What we can do isto act little by little. Every little thingaccumulated could yield a great sup-port to cleaner environment. As weare living only one earth， it's high timeto protect it together right now. Let'srecall Ms. Oge's remark again， \"All ofus share this one planet and preservingit for future generations is our essentialmotivator. Working together， we canmake a difference!\"