Politics
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Consumers all over the world, but especially in North America, are buying more crossover utility vehicles and fewer passenger sedans and hatchbacks. The U.S. auto industry makes the bulk of its profits on light trucks, which include crossovers, pickup trucks, and even minivans. The Trump Administration has said it wants to roll back environmental regulations. DON'T MISS: More than half of pickup truck fuel savings come in 2022-2025 CAFE rules Those three facts, in concert, are likely to produce a proposal from the NHTSA that gas-mileage rules for vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025 be...
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German Chancellor Merkel rejects electric-car quotas for Europe: 'not well thought out'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the country's leader, has detailed why she believes electric-car quotas are not a viable answer to emission and other issues plaguing Europe. Merkel, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, instead urged a much bigger-picture strategy, rather than a...
Sean Szymkowski -
Senate panel rejects clean-energy cuts, boosts DoE funding instead
The Senate Committee on Appropriations recently exhibited a quality somewhat rare in U.S. politics these days: bipartisanship. The committee released a lengthy report on the 2018 fiscal year budget for the Department of Energy that walks away from the Trump Administration's efforts to defund clean...
Sean Szymkowski -
Carmaker lobbyist urges fuel-economy deal to keep emission limits, but stretch them out (updated)
Automakers appear to have united behind a surprising position: reviews of emission rules should not involve scrapping the current standards. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a lobbying group that represents automakers building cars in the U.S., has suggested the Trump administration should...
Sean Szymkowski -
For pickup trucks, more than half all fuel savings come in 2022-2025 CAFE rules
Sometimes, when science and technology issues have economic or political consequences, incorrect or misleading information and analyses can be propagated through the media, leading both decision makers and the public astray. A piece published in April by Forbes, covering the effects of the 2022...
John Briggs -
Climate change worse, faster than projected, scientists tell Trump in leaked report
It is abundantly clear that the Trump Administration does not believe in science. In its six months to date, it chose a climate-science denier to lead the Environmental Protection agency; rolled back two dozen regulations limiting air, water, and land pollution; and announced a U.S. withdrawal from...
John Voelcker -
The U.S. federal income-tax credit for purchase of an electric car has seen its share of attacks over the years. Now a new video seeks to twist the facts to paint those subsidies in a bad light. While facts don't lie, it's easy to create a new narrative by taking carefully chosen facts out of context and presenting only a small part of a broader story. DON'T MISS: Propaganda video claiming 'dirty electric cars' debunked The video from Koch-funded group Fueling U.S. Forward recently surfaced and was promptly debunked, thanks to Desmog Blog. We're not linking to it here, but you can find it on...
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EPA museum may axe climate-change display, add one on coal
The museum at the Environmental Protection Agency may soon be in for an overhaul to reflect the agenda of the Trump administration. It's no secret Scott Pruitt, current EPA administrator and climate-science denier, has worked to deregulate many of the agency's regulatory efforts to promote fossil...
Sean Szymkowski -
NHTSA to review gas-mileage rules: could freeze 2021 limits, even roll back (updated)
The U.S. Department of Transportation said yesterday the NHTSA is preparing to revise corporate average fuel economy requirements for model years 2022 through 2025. The proposed version of those regulations, which was issued by the Obama Administration in 2012, included steady increases for each of...
John Voelcker -
U.S. government climate scientists restricted, sidelined, limited
Months into Donald Trump's presidency, it is clear the administration has worked diligently to downplay the role of science in setting policy on energy. Some moves to diminish scientists' roles have been more evident than others, but a new report details what has gone on behind the scenes. In...
Sean Szymkowski -
Propaganda video claiming 'dirty electric cars' debunked
For years, electric-car skeptics raised concerns about what was cleverly dubbed "The Coal Tailpipe": the idea that plug-in vehicles produced just as many harmful emissions as gasoline cars, but in a different place. That's not remotely true for carbon dioxide, as multiple studies over the years...
John Voelcker -
European commissioner warns against cities' diesel bans, fears market collapse
The warning came even before last week's plans for updates to 9 million European diesel cars by German luxury makers Audi and Mercedes-Benz were announced. In a letter sent to the transport ministers of European Union countries, EU industry commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska warned that proposed bans...
John Voelcker -
The United States House of Representatives has taken the first step towards allowing automakers and technology companies to deploy self-driving cars on public roads. A House panel passed a proposal that would allow automakers and other companies to deploy up to 100,000 self-driving vehicles. Significantly, the bill does not require the self-driving cars to meet existing safety standards and bars states from setting up their own rules and regulations for autonomous cars. DON'T MISS: What is a self-driving car? The goal of the bill is to avoid a patchwork of regulations that vary from state to...
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China electric-car rules 'impossible,' say carmakers; more deference to regulators needed?
It may be human nature to avoid doing things that are for the long-term good but impose short-term costs. Exercising more, giving up smoking, or paying more for a car that is better for the environment all challenge many otherwise responsible citizens. And it's abundantly clear that the emergence...
John Voelcker -
Combustion engines: high emissions from short commutes a huge challenge
Drivers in the U.S. have longer commutes than those in Europe and Asia, on average. In the U.K., short commutes in vehicles with combustion engines—whether gasoline or diesel—pose particularly tough emission problems. That's because the exhaust aftertreatment systems have to warm up...
John Voelcker -
California electric-car rebates out of cash again; legislature neglected to fund them
Incentives for the purchase of a plug-in battery-powered vehicle continue to be a powerful motivation to get new buyers to consider electric cars. The federal income-tax credit of $2,500 to $7,500 has long been supplemented by various state programs, including a purchase rebate in the crucial...
John Voelcker -
Trump claims to 'unleash American energy' in speech full of inaccurate claims
Shortly after announcing his intention to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, President Donald Trump declared the final week in June to be "Energy Week." In a later speech, Trump called for an energy revolution in the U.S. and vowed to "unleash American energy" to help the...
Sean Szymkowski -
Missing piece in global vehicle emission puzzle: heavy trucks
A global push to reduce vehicle emissions and create cleaner air for future generations has been underway for half a century now. However, while many governments around the world have introduced lower emission and higher fuel-efficiency standards for passenger cars, another large contributor to...
Sean Szymkowski -
It's taken a while, but Oregon will now have a state electric-car purchase incentive that largely matches those in its neighbor to the south, California. First discussed several years ago, the idea of a purchase rebate for cars that plug in hadn't made it through previous legislative sessions. This year proved different, with the rebate included as part of a much larger $5.3 billion transportation funding package that was passed yesterday by the Oregon Senate and House. DON'T MISS: Oregon mulls bonuses for salespeople who sell electric cars That package includes funding of $12 million a year...
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France plans to ban all gasoline, diesel vehicles by 2040
To most North Americans, the idea of banning all vehicles with internal-combustion engines seems unthinkable. Filling up with gasoline (or diesel) is as American as are dispersed low-density suburbs without mass transit, bike paths, or even sidewalks. Europeans, more of whom live in cities and most...
John Voelcker -
CA bill would make up for federal electric-car incentives as they expire
The state of California has a long track record of supporting electric cars and doing everything possible to ensure plug-in vehicles can be obtained by the largest number of drivers. Aside from the federal income-tax credits available nationally, the state of California has its own purchase...
Sean Szymkowski -
China revises electric-car incentives to reward longer ranges
It's long been official policy for China that the country's automakers will become the world's highest-volume producer of electric cars. (It also intends to dominate lithium-ion battery cells and photovoltaic solar panels, for the record.) But the government policies and incentives to achieve that...
John Voelcker -
What Trump's 'Energy Week' policies actually mean
The White House declared this past week "Energy Week" and offered up a few key points on which the Trump administration plans to focus to unleash what it calls a new American dominance in energy. However, neither the initiatives nor the proposed policy changes hone in on where the world is heading...
Sean Szymkowski -
Montana solar-power law rigging caught on live video, regrettably
The U.S. is coming up to its Independence Day holiday, in which we celebrate the Declaration of Independence from England and reflect on our history and traditions as a nation. This is an interesting time to do that, and there's a cynical argument to be made that backroom politics is as American as...
John Voelcker