government
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The current EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, does not accept the scientific consensus on human contribution to climate change, though he has given some contradictory statements on that matter. His views correspond closely to those of his boss, President Donald Trump, who notoriously compared the science to bovine excrement in a tweet and called climate change a hoax created by China to hurt the U.S. But even Pruitt, it seems, does not plan to challenge a key agency finding on climate science. DON'T MISS: Automakers seek deal to delay EPA's 2022-2025 emission rules According to an article in...
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Trump budget slashes EPA emission testing, hits makers with higher fees
The prospect of ongoing operations as usual continues to darken for the Environmental Protection Agency. According to a detailed internal budget document published in the The Washington Post, the Trump administration wants to eliminate virtually all federal funding for the agency’s vehicle...
Green Car Reports -
Green groups gird for battle with White House: is it 'war'?
Last Wednesday, a broad coalition of environmental groups sued the Trump Administration over an executive order that lifted a moratorium on issuing new leases for coal mining on federal lands. That order would have eliminated the requirement for an environmental impact study on the impacts of any...
John Voelcker -
California reaffirms state emission, electric-car rules for 2025
The California Air Resources Board voted Friday to confirm its stricter emissions standards for 2025, setting up a potential clash with the Trump Administration. The CARB vote reaffirms a decision by the EPA in the waning days of the Obama Administration to lock in emissions standards for vehicles...
Stephen Edelstein -
E15 gasoline faces stronger headwinds as more states move to ban it
While political control in Washington has changed, the debate over a mandate to blend specific volumes of ethanol into the U.S. fuel supply has not. Since its passage in 2007 as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act, the ethanol-mandating Renewable Fuel Standard has attracted...
Stephen Edelstein -
Bill making it harder for scientists to sit on EPA Science Board advances
Since the election of Donald Trump, considerable attention has focused on how a candidate who campaigned on promoting fossil fuels would treat the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies charged with regulating those industries. But potential changes to the EPA do not come solely...
Stephen Edelstein -
While federal policies to reduce vehicular emissions of carbon dioxide are now back in the limelight, it's a different story on the state and local level. A group of 30 U.S. cities is discussing a major purchase of electric cars for their municipal fleets. The cities have jointly asked automakers for cost and feasibility estimates of providing 114,000 cars, to be split among them. DON'T MISS: Four large West Coast cities unite to buy 24,000 electric cars Those vehicles would augment and in many cases replace thousands of existing cars and light trucks that rack up considerable mileage every...
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Bipartisan governors' group urges Trump to back solar, wind power
The new presidential administration seems poised to take a radically different approach to energy policy than its predecessor. That approach is founded on denial of accepted climate science, and an expressed desire to promote the fossil-fuel industry, including the so-called revival of coal. But...
Stephen Edelstein -
EPA's internal watchdog to check vulnerability to emission cheating
Even with a new leader apparently at odds with its mission, the Environmental Protection Agency continues to function on some level. On Thursday, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said carbon dioxide released by human activity is not a major cause of climate change, directly contradicting the...
Stephen Edelstein -
Nevada treasurer, Faraday's nemesis, turns eye toward Tesla tax-credit transfer
The state of Nevada has been fairly generous to startup electric-car makers that pledge to establish manufacturing operations within its borders. After offering a generous incentive package several years ago, the Silver State landed Tesla's lithium-ion battery "Gigafactory," which is now up and...
Stephen Edelstein -
Trump budget to slash EPA funds, ax staff, kill climate-change plans: reports
Imagine appointing a lifelong pacifist, who believes it is never justifiable to take up arms against any man, to run the U.S. armed forces. The appointment of Scott Pruitt as the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could perhaps be viewed in a similar light. In his former...
John Voelcker -
New York state electric-car rebate program to launch this month
New York state has finally issued details on its effort to step up its efforts to promote electric cars. The Empire State is one of eight so-called "ZEV states" that have adopted California emissions standards. But New York does not mandate automakers to sell zero-emission vehicles within its...
Stephen Edelstein -
It can be argued that the current presidential administration appears to lack interest in the traditional mission of the Environmental Protection Agency. As a candidate, Donald Trump advocated wholesale repeal of environmental regulations and increased production of fossil fuels. He has also called climate science a "hoax" created by China to hurt the U.S. As president, Trump picked Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA. Pruitt is a climate-science denier who sued the agency he now leads multiple times over its enforcement of environmental regulations. DON'T MISS: Auto lobby again asks to redo...
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California local governments share how to prepare for electric cars
California leads the way when it comes to electric-car adoption in the U.S. That's due in large part to a zero-emission vehicle mandate that requires the largest-volume automakers to sell cars without tailpipes, combined with a generous state purchase incentive that encourages residents to buy...
Stephen Edelstein -
State fees, penalties on electric cars proliferate this year
Several different states have continued to propose new fees for electric-car owners as a way to pay for road repairs. The fees are typically meant as a substitute for the gasoline taxes that, because they don't buy gas, electric-car owners don't pay. Advocates have criticized these fees, saying...
Stephen Edelstein -
Auto industry split over halting, changing fuel-economy rules
Just days after the presidential election, automaker lobbyists urged Donald Trump to loosen pending emissions and fuel-economy standards. Shortly after the election, a lobbying group wrote Trump asking him to change or delay an EPA decision that kept planned emissions standards for 2022 to 2025 in...
Stephen Edelstein -
What White House faces if it tries to roll back fuel-economy standards
Donald Trump won the U.S. Electoral College and swept into the White House on a varied platform that included significant promises to cut regulation and reduce government involvement in a wide variety of spheres. The day after his election, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers sent him a letter...
John Voelcker -
China happy to become world's climate-change leader if U.S. lags
Under the administration of President Barack Obama, the U.S. joined the rest of the world and took a leading role in global efforts to avert irreversible climate change. But that seems unlikely to continue under the Trump administration, which has nominated climate-science deniers to numerous key...
Stephen Edelstein -
One week ago this morning, the U.S. and the world woke up to learn that Donald Trump would be the next president of the United States. The shockwaves of that election are still reverberating, and will do so for quite some time to come. Among the groups concerned are environmentalists, clean-energy advocates, and electric-car proponents. DON'T MISS: 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid: first drive of plug-in hybrid minivan Trump has called climate science "bullshit," among other interesting statements, but he does not appear to be on record directly concerning electric cars. Many of his campaign...
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Why do electric cars exist? Buyer demand? Legislation? Or VW?
Would electric cars exist without policymakers?
Stephen Edelstein -
VW 'annoyed' it won't get order for electric vans it didn't make
Suppose you're one of the world's three largest automakers. You don't offer a type of vehicle that a relatively small but highly visible customer in your home market wants. Do you have the right to be annoyed if that customer designs those vehicles itself? DON'T MISS: USPS picks AM General to help...
John Voelcker -
German upper house asks EU to ban new gas, diesel car sales by 2030
Last week, the German Federal Council adopted a bipartisan measure that would ban the sale of new vehicles with internal-combustion engines in the country after 2030. While its actions only apply within Germany, language in the measure asks the European Union to ensure that sales of such cars are...
John Voelcker -
USPS picks AM General to help build next-generation mail trucks
AM General, the firm best known for building Hummer H1s in both civilian and military versions, has been selected by a rather different governmental agency to help create a prototype with a different kind of civic duty in mind. Postal trucks, those white boxes that deliver your mail, haven't...
Andrew Ganz -
When Electric-Car Incentives Return: British Columbia Case Study
Christmas came in April last year for plug-in electric vehicle proponents in British Columbia, Canada, when the provincial government reinstated its Clean Energy Vehicle purchase-incentive program. Purchase rebates for B.C. buyers of plug-in electric vehicles had ended in February 2014, when the...
Matthew Klippenstein