By Wendy Anders

Costa Rica’s National Liberation Party Legislator, Ronny Monge, has introduced a measure with the support of 20 of his colleagues to end the use of fuel-consuming vehicles in Costa Rica, said a report on Costa Rica’s Teletica news station.

“If we didn’t have to depend on petroleum imports, we would save millions. Also as a country that has sold itself to the world as a destiny for ecological tourism, we need to be on par with country’s that have already approved such measures,” continued Monge in a televised interview.

If approved, the legislation calls for the immediate application of an added $500 import fine for fuel vehicles for the first five years of the law’s implementation, and after that there would be a $1,000 import fine for such vehicles.

This and other measures would lead to the entire phase out of any fuel-consuming vehicles by the year 2030, said Monge and another of the bill’s supporters, Gerardo Vargas, from the Social Christian Unity Party.

Vargas said, “Let’s listen to the experts, and let’s listen to the people and to civil society, so that together we can come up with what is best for the country,” in reference to the proposed law.

Another aspect of the proposal is to limit purchases by the government to only non-fuel vehicles by 2020, detailed the televised report.