Donald Trump
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Tomorrow is expected to be the day when President Donald Trump announces the EPA will reopen the comment period for the vehicle emissions standards it finalized in the waning days of the Obama Administration. The event will likely be accompanied by predictable language: Trump will be “highlighting the need to eliminate burdensome regulations that needlessly hinder meaningful job growth," in the words of beleaguered White House press secretary Sean Spicer. But assuming that's the substance of the announcement—and Trump doesn't, say, announce that all emission limits will be...
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Five electric-car questions to worry about this year
It seems fair to say that the new presidential administration may have increased the generalized level of worry among many Americans, not to mention the rest of the world. Among the things to worry about are the future of incentives, infrastructure, and legislation encouraging the adoption of...
John Voelcker -
Trump's EPA deletes 'science' from Science Office mission statement
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is emerging as one of the government entities most targeted by the new Trump Administration for change. In this case, if reports of the administration's draft budget proposal are accurate, change means wholesale elimination of staff, funding, and programs...
John Voelcker -
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 -
EPA to reopen 2022-2025 auto-emission rule decision: report
It looks like lobbying pays off, at least in the case of EPA emission rules. According to numerous recent reports, the EPA is expected to reopen the commenting period for vehicle-emission rules it finalized in January, more than a year ahead of schedule. Automaker CEOs and the Alliance of...
John Voelcker -
Auto lobby again asks to redo emission rule, to new EPA chief Pruitt this time
Lobbyists for the world's automakers continue to ask the new presidential administration to revisit an EPA decision to finalize emissions standards through 2025. Just days after the November election, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers wrote President-Elect Trump to ask that he reverse the...
Stephen Edelstein -
Just days after the presidential election, an automaker lobbying group wrote Donald Trump asking him to change or delay an EPA decision that kept planned exhaust-emission standards through 2025. Now executives of 18 automakers have sent a second letter, asking the same thing—and echoing a statement by Ford CEO Mark Fields that "up to 1 million jobs" were at risk from the standards. As before, that estimate is based on a study whose assumptions are so extreme that they "don't make sense," according to one critique. DON'T MISS: Emissions rules could cost 1 million jobs, Ford CEO tells...
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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 -
Emissions rules could cost 1 million jobs, Ford CEO tells Trump: what's behind that number? (further updated)
Among his actions during a whirlwind first week in office, U.S. President Donald Trump met last week with the CEOs of U.S. automakers Fiat Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. He met on two consecutive days with Mark Fields, CEO of Ford, in fact. Fields was part of a group of manufacturing...
John Voelcker -
Public supports fuel-economy regulations, including Trump voters
Regardless of political persuasion, there are some issues almost everyone can agree on. One of them, for example, is likely gas prices. It's hard to imagine anyone who enjoys paying more every time they fill up their car. DON'T MISS: Emissions/MPG rules could cost 1 million jobs, Ford CEO tells...
Stephen Edelstein -
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 -
U.S. to pull out of Paris climate-change agreement under Trump
As seemed likely from the day Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, the country will pull out of the global Paris Climate Agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The move had been signaled even before the election by the new president's choice of noted climate-science...
John Voelcker -
Following the removal of all mentions of climate change from the White House website, the new administration has apparently trained its sights on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA and a handful of other government agencies are now reportedly under gag orders: employees are forbidden to discuss ongoing changes, post new material on agency websites, communicate on social media, or respond to queries from media or the public. This morning, further reports emerged that the agency has been told to remove all mentions of climate change from its website. DON'T MISS: More than...
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More than two-thirds of Americans accept climate science, regardless of Trump
The new U.S. administration has made it clear that it does not accept the scientific consensus on climate change. From President Donald Trump down through his nominees for key roles—Scott Pruitt for EPA adminstrator, Rick Perry for Department of Energy head, and others—key elected and...
John Voelcker -
Action on climate change 'harmful, unnecessary': Trump White House
If there were any doubt that U.S. policy on climate change would change drastically under President Donald Trump, it should have been laid to rest shortly after noon yesterday. Following inauguration ceremonies for the 45th president of the United States, the Obama White House website was replaced...
John Voelcker -
China's five-year budget for renewable energy: $360 billion
Despite a recent downturn, the Chinese government is moving full-speed ahead to invest heavily in renewable energy. The country's national regulators have already promoted renewable energy as a possible cure for the country's notoriously-bad air pollution. But China has placed more emphasis on...
Stephen Edelstein -
Clean energy to grow, coal to fade, regardless of Trump EPA plans
President-elect Donald Trump's choice of Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates that his administration will pursue radically different energy policies from its predecessor's. Pruitt is a climate-science denier, and has sued the agency he...
Stephen Edelstein -
Trump supported ethanol, but his team may not; is oil the reason?
Several members of Trump's team are against ethanol, advisor Carl Icahn said in a recent interview.
Stephen Edelstein -
Donald Trump's campaign said last year that he owned a Tesla electric car.
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What effect will Trump presidency have on electric cars? Poll results
It may reflect unshakable confidence in the future prospects of electric cars. Or perhaps it's a lack of conviction that the incoming Trump Administration can have enough effect on incentives, emission regulations, and gas-mileage rules to make a difference. Either way, the respondents to our most...
John Voelcker -
Under Trump, renewable-energy progress may not change much
Under Trump, the state of renewable energy may not change much, experts believe.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla CEO Elon Musk named to Trump's business-leader forum
Elon Musk was named to an advisory group of business leaders.
Stephen Edelstein -
Reminder: buy that electric-car charging station (or electric motorcycle) this month!
With any new presidential administration comes a certain degree of legislative uncertainty. Conflicting statements on many issues by president-elect Donald Trump have produced more questions than usual about what policies he and his administration may pursue. But for present and future electric-car...
John Voelcker -
Trump: Rick Perry to lead Energy Department he vowed to eliminate
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of Energy.
Stephen Edelstein