emissions
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The period for public comments on the EPA's proposed reconsideration of finalized rules to cut emissions of the climate-change gas carbon dioxide from light-duty vehicles will end on Thursday, October 5. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on August 10 it would reopen the Comment Period for the vehicle-emission standards for model years 2022 through 2025 it had finalized in January. The auto industry and its lobbyists had complained that the agency had moved too quickly, despite its issuance last summer of a voluminous Technical Assessment Report that detailed the analyses...
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Coming this week: Trump EPA's plan to neuter Clean Power PlanDonald Trump's White House appears to be readying another of its next big climate change overhauls, and like many of the administration's plans, it will weaken or eliminate regulations on industry. Specifically, President Trump touted the undoing of the Clean Power Plan at a rally in Huntsville...
Sean Szymkowski -
China electric-car rules to start in 2019; aggressive totals are world's highestYou may not have heard it happen, but the global automotive industry changed forever on Thursday. China released its plan to require substantial sales of plug-in electric cars by all makers who want to sell in the world's largest car market, and they start in little more than a year. The levels far...
John Voelcker -
Shell bashes bans on gasoline cars, proposes carbon pricing insteadThe prospect of bans on gasoline and diesel new-car sales have become a much greater threat not only to automakers but to oil companies as well, now that China has said it is studying such a move. The world's largest car market has not announced any timetables for such a ban, which will likely be...
John Voelcker -
China wants all electric cars: will it work? Reasons and reactionsIt was quaint and adorable when Norway did it, saying it would end sales of cars with internal-combustion engines by 2025. The Netherlands followed suit, with little fanfare. More recently, France and the U.K. have enacted various forms of bans on non-electrified vehicles, on varying schedules. Now...
John Voelcker -
California plans for its post-fossil-fuel future in electricity, carsFor 50 years, the state of California has led the United States when it comes to renewable energy and electric cars. The state features many programs to incentivize electric-car ownership, and 29 percent of the state's 2016 energy production came from solar, wind, and other renewable power sources...
Sean Szymkowski -
Continuing political turmoil and news coverage of the Trump Administration haven't stopped the president's agency heads from drastically reshaping policies on energy, the environment, and emissions. Comments are now being taken on the reopened EPA limits on vehicular carbon emissions for 2022 through 2025, although reporters had to dig to find out how the public could weigh in. Meanwhile, the NHTSA is now developing the corresponding gas-mileage rules for the same period—and has said it will consider rolling back corporate average fuel-economy requirements to lower numbers from earlier...
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2020 Mazda electric car to share Toyota underpinnings, technologyMazda is a tiny carmaker on a global scale, producing just 1.6 million vehicles a year. It competes with four companies (GM, Nissan-Renault, Toyota, and VW Group) that each sell around 10 million a year, as well as numerous other smaller makers still larger than Mazda. In a world where reducing the...
John Voelcker -
India actually beat China to all-electric new-car pledge, targets 2030China made headlines around the world on Sunday when state media reported that the country is developing a timetable to end production and sales of new vehicles with gasoline engines. While Norway, The Netherlands, France, and the U.K. have adopted different timetables for various versions of such...
John Voelcker -
Complex engine tech gets better ratings, does little in real world: reportLately, automakers haven't been touting the rising fuel economy of new vehicles, but it has to continue rising to meet reductions in the legal levels of carbon emitted. While major strides in fuel economy have been made over the past five years, the complex engine technologies and other...
Sean Szymkowski -
Texas fossil-fuel industry made state more vulnerable to hurricaneHurricane Harvey will go down as one of the most destructive and costliest natural disasters in the United States. While the storm has dissipated, with this week's attention focused on Hurricane Irma, the effects and damage tolls will last for years—and one thing already seems clear: Texas'...
Sean Szymkowski -
Electric cars in UK cleaner than best diesels in summer, not yet in winterAlthough electric cars do not emit exhaust, it's widely recognized that the electricity to charge their batteries often still comes from fossil fuels. This has led to the scrutiny of electric cars to determine whether their overall "wells-to-wheels" carbon footprints exceed those of regular...
Sean Szymkowski -
The auto industry has now grudgingly accepted that battery-electric cars will make up some portion of the world's new vehicles in years to come. But a milestone in that trend may have come today, in news from China. Policy makers in the world's most populous country, and largest car market, are developing a timetable to end production and sales of new vehicles with gasoline engines. DON'T MISS: UK to ban diesel, gasoline car sales by 2040; follows France, Norway, Holland bans Unlike Norway, The Netherlands, France, and the U.K., no year is yet associated with the plans, which are still being...
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Want to buy a used, updated Volkswagen TDI diesel car? Your VW dealer will get first dibsUpdated Volkswagen diesel vehicles with new engine software will soon be back on the market, but those looking to buy one will have to wait for their local dealership. Volkswagen will offer the hundreds of thousands of modified diesel vehicles to its franchised dealers first, offering them a "right...
Sean Szymkowski -
Uber to go all electric or hybrid in London by 2020, ban diesels, add clean-air fee to ridesUber has announced it will require its 40,000 drivers in London to switch to hybrid or fully electric cars, and ban diesel vehicles from its fleet, by the end of 2019. By the end of 2021, it will extend that policy throughout the United Kingdom, where it presently operates in 40 cities. Uber said...
John Voelcker -
Death of engines overstated, fully electric world a 'comic book' fantasy: Japanese test companyMost analysts agree the future of the automobile will slowly but increasingly come to rely on battery power. Electric cars will slowly displace internal combustion engines, many researchers suggest, and peak demand for fossil fuels used in transportation could arrive as soon as the next decade...
Sean Szymkowski -
CA legislators propose $1 billion to remove dirtiest diesel trucksThe state of California has officially launched its legislative push for stricter heavy-duty truck and bus emission regulations. Following calls for the state to use its recently-extended carbon cap-and-trade program to fund updates to fleets of semi trucks and other commercial vehicles, four state...
Sean Szymkowski -
Europe's tougher new emissions, fuel-economy tests should be closer to real-world resultsFuel-economy ratings for cars sold in Europe have long been wildly unrealistic, sometimes more than 30 percent more optimistic than real-world consumption figures. Today, that will change. As of September 1, two new and more stringent testing regimes are to be used for certifying new vehicles going...
John Voelcker -
California is set to receive a lump sum of funds from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust following its diesel emission scandal. With $423 million at the state's discretion, groups are lobbying hard to ensure the funds are used to have an immediate and positive impact on the environment and air quality. One diesel lobbying group believes the best way to combat emissions in the short run is to allocate a large portion of the funds to replace the state's old and dirty diesel-powered semi trucks. DON'T MISS: Diesel trucks with latest emission controls displacing dirtier, older ones on...
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Exxon knew climate change was real, ads told public it wasn'tSometimes it's best not to dare the public to do the research, especially if you're trying to persuade them of something that isn't true. Almost two years ago, Inside Climate News published a significant expose that confirmed Exxon's own scientists had agreed that human carbon emissions contributed...
John Voelcker -
Used diesel demand drops in Germany over fear of software upgradesDiesel-powered cars, long a staple on European roads, are starting to lose favor as million of dollars of inventory begins to pile up in used diesel models. The inventory, largely recent models certified under the superseded Euro-5 emission standards, has boomed recently over the possibility the...
Sean Szymkowski -
Audi diesel: another shoe drops as top VW Group execs implicatedIt has been nearly two years since Volkswagen came clean and admitted its "clean diesel" engines were actually quite dirty. In 2015, a VW engineer admitted the TDI diesel cars sold in the U.S. since 2009 were outfitted with "defeat device" software that let them pass emission tests, only to emit...
Sean Szymkowski -
VW engineer gets 40 months in jail, $200K fine, for diesel cheating roleFormer Volkswagen employee James Liang was sentenced in Detroit on Friday to serve 40 months in prison and pay a $200,000 fine for his role in the global Volkswagen diesel-emission cheating scandal. It was a stiffer sentence than expected for an engineer who helped to create software that...
John Voelcker -
When will ads for cars with tailpipes be banned as health hazards? Poll resultsJust 30 years ago, people could smoke anywhere, including offices, malls, and restaurants. The 1987 opening of a New York City restaurant called "Nosmo King" (read it again) was considered a bizarre, if amusing, idea that restauranteurs said would bankrupt the place because no one would give up...
John Voelcker