emissions
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Chalk up one more state in California's column. Colorado has added its name to the list of 12 states that follow California's tighter emissions standards. Governor John Hickenlooper directed Colorado's Air Quality Control Commission to begin the legal process of bringing the state into the coalition of those that follow California's air quality rules, rather than the federal EPA's. CHECK OUT: California and 16 states sue EPA over emissions rules Under the Clean Air Act, California is allowed to set stricter emissions requirements for cars than the EPA, and other states are allowed to opt-in...
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Daimler ordered to recall nearly 774,000 diesels in Europe for emissions software
Stop us if you've heard this before: A major automaker will recall hundreds of thousands of vehicles for software that turns off emissions controls under certain circumstances. This time, it's Mercedes-Benz's parent company Daimler under investigation. Germany's transportation minister met with...
Aaron Cole -
Scientists find affordable way to recapture CO2 and burn it
Scientists at Harvard have developed a new method of scrubbing carbon from the atmosphere, and turning it into hydrocarbon fuels that could be burned in airplanes or even cars. The process has been demonstrated at a small scale and combines common technologies from the pulp and petroleum industries...
Eric C. Evarts -
Report: Trump EPA plans to cancel California emissions waiver
The EPA is planning to cancel the special waiver that California has relied on since 1970 to set its own emissions standards, according to a Bloomberg report. As part of its plan to reverse a program to steadily tighten fuel economy standards that it coordinates with California and the National...
Eric C. Evarts -
2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI SportWagen driven: Fixed, but does it matter?
The brown diesel wagon I’m driving spent last winter confined to a dusty parking lot south of Colorado Springs. Thousands of other TDIs, ranging from Beetles to luxurious Audi Q7 crossovers, remain captive in massive holding facilities across the U.S. Some are finally heading home, to used car...
Andrew Ganz -
California and 16 states sue EPA over emissions rules
California, along with 16 other states and the District of Columbia, have formally launched a long-anticipated lawsuit against EPA over its proposed rollback of emissions rules for 2022 through 2025.
Eric C. Evarts -
With a legal showdown approaching between the Trump Administration and California, we thought it was high time to ask our readers who you think should govern emissions standards.
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An Earth Day question: When will we see 'tailpipes' on cars as morally wrong?
With increasing availability of zero-emission cars over the coming years, when will citizens at large start to question the idea that every vehicle has an "exhaust pipe" that just belches harmful substances into our shared air?
John Voelcker -
Carmakers want emission, CAFE tweaks, not huge rollbacks, but won't say so publicly
As promised, the Trump administration has embarked on regulatory rollbacks across many fronts, some immediate and others taking longer. It remains unclear whether the EPA's plan to loosen carbon-dioxide emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles will survive inevitable court challenges...
John Voelcker -
Deal between EPA, California on auto emissions may still be possible
Over the many months EPA administrator Scott Pruitt signaled his intention to revisit the Obama administration's emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, California warned that it would not go along with any reductions. The state has been allowed to set its own emission standards for...
John Voelcker -
EPA does not set fuel-economy limits: get this right, journalists!
Journalism as an industry is under great pressure these days. There are far more people writing "content" than in past decades, and in general they are having to produce more of it for less money than they did 10, 20, or 50 years ago. That's no excuse, however, for getting the basics wrong. DON'T...
John Voelcker -
Britain's electric utility backs earlier ban on new cars with engines, in 2030
Norway and The Netherlands started the trend a few years ago, though they're relatively tiny car markets. Then France and the U.K. joined in. China, the world's largest new-car market by far, is doing it—though the country hasn't decided when. All of those countries plan to ban, or work the...
John Voelcker -
Despite the sturm und drang around the announcement by embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt that he will relax emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, not much will happen immediately. His determination last week that the Obama administration was "incorrect" and that the limits on those vehicles weren't needed kicks off a lengthy process of rulemaking. If, that is, the reasoning in his determination holds up in court—which it may not. DON'T MISS: Pruitt's EPA decision: 38-page intention vs 1,217 pages of analysis It was clear from the very start there would be court challenges, by...
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Paris climate accords look more and more like fantasy; the reality could be far worse
New York Magazine article draws dire conclusion that catastrophic climate change is nearly inevitable, with or without Paris climate accord.
Eric C. Evarts -
Pruitt's EPA decision: 38-page intention vs 1,217 pages of analysis
While the name of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is often preceded by "embattled" these days, his agency is now on record as rejecting its own recommendation of just 16 months ago. It concluded in July 2016 that the auto industry had handily met lower carbon-emission limits from 2012 through...
John Voelcker -
Why trucks aren't a CAFE problem for carmakers, despite their lobbying claims
The automakers claimed that the standards were unrealistic given that consumers are flocking to crossovers and pickup trucks as gas prices remain low. According to a new report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient economy, and to our own analysis, trucks aren't the reason.
Eric C. Evarts -
8 things you should know about EPA plan to let cars emit more (cutting fuel economy as well)
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said yesterday the agency plans to modify rules limiting carbon-dioxide emissions for light-duty vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025. The agency, he said, had reached a determination that the limits put in place in 2012 under the Obama administration were...
John Voelcker -
EPA staffers told how to downplay climate change in leaked memo
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt would be controversial even if he hadn't flown to Morocco in December (first-class, on the taxpayer dime) to lobby the country on the benefits of liquified natural gas while living in a condo owned by a lobbyist for the country's largest LNG exporter. He is likely the...
John Voelcker -
The omens have been accumulating for months, as bits of information dribble out of the regulatory rumor mill in Washington, D.C. Now we have the most concrete reports yet that the U.S. EPA plans to modify exhaust emission limits for vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025. The EPA delivered its draft Final Determination document to the Office of Management and Budget last week, sources told The Wall Street Journal, and the agency will announce its decision in time to meet an April 1 deadline. DON'T MISS: Pruitt won't let CA set emission standards; EPA not looking at post-2025 rules A final...
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CA attorney general: we will fight looser fuel-economy, emission rules
Last Tuesday, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said the agency does not intend to let California set the agenda for national emission limits on vehicles. He suggested to Bloomberg the EPA plans to cut emission rules aggressively to respond to carmakers' pleas for easing of the corporate average fuel...
John Voelcker -
Cutting carbon, meeting real-life emission tests, new electric cars to hurt profits, VW says
Well, that's awkward. At its annual media briefing on Wednesday, Volkswagen Group executives said the costs of meeting new emission tests in the EU, lowering carbon emissions globally, and launching multiple new electric models would eat into the company's profits. With the company's diesels in...
John Voelcker -
Pruitt won't let California set emission standards; EPA not looking at post-2025 rules
Now, it's war, in the words of California's lead emission regulator. In what Bloomberg News called a "wide-ranging interview" with EPA chief Scott Pruitt, he indicated the agency does not intend to let California set the agenda for national emission limits on vehicles. Bringing California into line...
John Voelcker -
Cars now clean enough that household products rival them for air pollution
The first major emission controls on motor vehicles were introduced in 1975 with the advent of the catalytic converter. Today's cars emit less than 1 percent of the three "criteria" pollutants that came out of their tailpipes half a century ago. They emit relatively so little carbon monoxide...
John Voelcker -
In pictures: Volkswagen TDI diesels await their fate in Pike's Peak shadow
It might be the world’s largest single-company junkyard and pick-a-part business, if not for the prominent "No Trespassing" and "Drone-Free Zone" signs. Instead, it’s a massive storage facility in Colorado for thousands of disgraced VW and Audi TDI diesel vehicles awaiting whatever fate...
Andrew Ganz