Column: Going green: Gas pump ‘warming labels’ will aid consumers, climate

Disclosing the latent climate and public health harms from combusting gasoline to people now, warning labels now appear on Cambridge, Mass., gas pumps. In mitigating Hawaii’s largest source of greenhouse gas and building public support — and adoption — of the state’s goals for electrification of light-duty vehicles, Hawaii gas pumps could come with their own “warming label.”

As described by Michael Jacobs of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute, free markets are unable to account for long-term risk such as dependence on fossil fuels, on a clear trajectory to causing catastrophic climate change.

Currently, the environmental and public health costs to society from burning one gallon of gasoline (nondiesel) amount to $6.50.

Hawaii’s warming labels would deploy social norms marketing tools to gas consumers where, Jacobs continues, shifting toward cleaner energy sources cannot be left to the market. By communicating harms to gas consumers in deeply entrenched markets for transport fuels, warming labels on gas pumps — much like warnings on cigarettes — could shift attitudes and beliefs about combustion harms that may facilitate stronger support for state electrification goals.

Market economies, according to Jacobs, tend toward concentration as markets mature and where large corporations become political and economically dominant. In short, there is an oil industry oligopoly in the transport sector with just under 1% electric vehicle market share in the U.S. Oil industry dominance in transport energy, chronic public apathy about climate urgency and consumer’s poor understanding of the public health harms from fossil fuel consumption, is currently inhibiting competition and innovation.

Oil industry domination coupled with an absence of government regulation of oil markets, means cleaner transport energy choices do not exist on a level playing field with fossil energy. Sweden for example, requires “climate impact ratings” on gas pumps, biofuel stations and EV (electric vehicle) charging stations. Such “eco labels” on biofuel dispensers and EV charging stations display a “low” and “least” climate impact rating label respectively. These options now compete in the market with conventional petroleum fuels (which receive the ‘highest’ climate impact rating) as a less impactful — e.g., “better” — option in the marketplace.

Of course, not all cars run on electricity or biofuels, but the Swedish scheme nudging gas consumers toward less-impactful energy options, can increase industry competition for them.

Indeed, the energy company Kraftringen, supplier of biomethane and charging stations in Sweden, now proudly displays an eco-label, despite a EU-commission delay in their implementation on conventional petroleum fuel pumps, as they (favorably) provide a warning against fossil fuels by advertising their product as a low-impact choice.

Unlike relying solely on private industry or government to decide when to deliver vehicle electrification here in Hawaii, warming labels engage the very people who will ultimately need to adopt them now. And unlike gas bans which California’s case bring the technology by decree 14 years from now, warming labels directly employ the very people who will need to adopt electric vehicles.

Research shows government-sponsored warming labels would communicate to gas consumers already-held concern about climate change which would build support for more aggressive mitigating action. Broadly educating the public on commonly misunderstood harms from combustion could break down public trust in fossil fuels as an ostensible political foundation for Hawaii’s people choosing electric vehicles en masse. They are government preventing the oil industry from selling its product — with hidden, harmful effects— without transparency. For Jacobs, it is a more Democratic capitalism where free markets work only on a foundation of nonmarket institutions.

Given Hawaii’s desire to transition to EVs, warming labels may therefore make choosing them more normal by preventing a deception. By improving Hawaii’s gas consumers’ abilities to make choices, crucial for this transition, warming labels’ ability to alter consumer preferences right away, and in the absence of public appetite for more aggressive policies — like carbon taxes — may better secure, accelerate even, Hawaii state emissions goals in transportation.

James R. Brooks, of Kapaau, is the founder of the Hawaii-based nonprofit Think Beyond the Pump (Twitter:@BeyondPump).