Tuning Truck

Black is back in the Golden State - whether it's cool or not.

The Los Angeles Times' Up To Speed blog reported on March 27 that the California Air Resources Board has no plans "at this time" to regulate car paint as part of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CARB spokesman Stanley Young told the blog that "we are by no means interested in banning or restricting car colors."

Young was referring to controversy fueled by reports that California regulators were considering a ban on black cars as part of the state's ongoing bid to improve fuel efficiency and reduce tailpipe emissions.

A recent headline on Rush Limbaugh's website went as far as to state that "Tyrants Want to Ban Black Cars." The radio talk show host delighted in the prospect of those wacky Californians considering a ban that would directly impact President Obama, who regularly travels in a black limousine that is escorted by security forces riding in black SUVs.

Back on Feb. 4, we gave you an update on CARB's ongoing push to find "cool paints" and window treatments that use advanced technology to reflect or reduce the infrared and near-infrared light that causes the interiors of cars with dark paint to really heat up on sunny days.

The paint controversy turns on the carbon black (a material produced by the incomplete combustion of coal tar and other heavy petroleum products) that paint companies use to create the deep black color that is so popular among motorists.

No one is arguing over the science involved. Carbon black absorbs sunlight, a process that heats up automobile interiors. It becomes a fuel-efficiency and tailpipe emissions problem because air-conditioning units (which sap horsepower from car engines via belt-driven compressors) account for 15% of the 140 billion gallons of gasoline that California motorists use each year.

The options being studied in Sacramento include the use of different types of paints and window coatings that can help to reduce heat build-up by blocking or reflecting infrared and near-infrared light.

Paint manufacturers have mastered the technology when it comes to lighter colors, including white and silver.Not so, however, for black, brown and other cool-looking dark colors that become muddied when carbon black isn't present. The result can be a brown-black or dark chocolate instead of the raven black that consumers relish.

The Times quotes Young as saying that the paint proposal has been abandoned on the grounds that "the technology was not yet mature enough to deliver what we hoped to achieve."

CARB continues to study clear-coat automotive glass coverings that would help to keep car interiors cooler.

Henry Ford, who figured black was a pretty cool color, is probably smiling.