emissions

  • Smokestacks pollution air quality

    The International Energy Agency reported on Tuesday that global warming emissions reached a record level in 2018, despite efforts in the U.S., Europe, and China to reduce emissions with more sales of electric cars and cleaner power. Greenhouse gas emissions increased faster in 2018 than during any of the past six years. Worldwide, emissions of global-warming carbon-dioxide gas rose 1.7 percent in 2018 to 33.1 billion tons. READ THIS: Latest climate study says it's already too late Almost two-thirds of the growth came from generating electricity, the IEA reported. Still with all the renewable...

  • Smokestacks [CREDIT: Global Climate Budget 2018]
    UN global climate report restores hope, lays out roadmap

    A new UN report on global climate change isn't quite as dire as one it issued last October. That special report on warming of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) showed that the effects of climate change could become catastrophic by 2040, at least 10 years earlier than scientists had...

  • Volkswagen TDI diesel vehicles owned by Phil Grate and family, Seattle, Washington
    Dieselgate continued: SEC charges VW and its ex-boss with fraud

    Amazingly, the diesel emissions case against Volkswagen in the U.S. is still gaining steam. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged VW and its former CEO Martin Winterkorn on Thursday with defrauding investors, according to wire-service reports. READ MORE: Gauging VW's progress on second...

  • 2014 Dodge Avenger
    Not just diesel: FCA recalling 860K cars for emissions failure

    The Patriots are in good company, surrounded by cheaters!

  • 2019 Honda Insight
    EPA says fuel economy rose in 2017, but it may be falling again

    An EPA report released Wednesday shows that cars are getting better gas mileage in response to rising fuel economy standards. Yet a roaring economy and low gas prices have put Americans on a truck-buying spree, and the EPA is working to undermine those standards. According to its annual automotive...

  • EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler
    Senate confirms coal lobbyist Wheeler as EPA head

    The Senate on Thursday confirmed acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler to head the agency. Since Wheeler became the acting administrator last July, he has released plans to unwind rising emissions and attendant fuel economy standards enacted under President Obama, and to rescind California's...

  • 2009 BMW X5 xDrive 35d

    German automakers have been under a microscope when it comes to emissions from their diesel cars, which were formerly bestsellers in Europe. After Daimler, Volkswagen, and German supplier Bosch paid billions in fines and several Audi managers have been arrested over installing diesel-emissions cheat devices, German prosecutors have handed down a fine to BMW as well. BMW will pay $9.6 million (8.5 million euros) for installing "defective" engine software in diesel cars, German prosecutors announced on Monday. READ THIS: 300K bought-back VW diesels are decaying in 37 lots as it waits for ...

  • Freeway, Los Angeles, 2009 (photo by Myriam Thyes via Wikimedia)
    EPA cuts off fuel-economy talks with California

    The Trump administration has ended talks with California aimed at settling their differences over increasing fuel economy and tightening emissions regulations, Reuters reported Thursday, citing an unnamed government official. In August, the EPA, led by Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, released...

  • 2019 Ford Ranger
    Ford investigates its own fuel-economy testing methods

    Ford announced on Thursday that it opened an investigation into the fuel economy testing it does to receive official EPA ratings and federal certification to sell its vehicles in the U.S. The company plans to start by retesting its 2019 Ranger midsize pickup, after employees raised concerns through...

  • Freeway, Los Angeles, 2009 (photo by Myriam Thyes via Wikimedia)
    California Autobahn: Bill proposes to cut emissions by adding fast lanes

    In the wake of the debate over California’s complicated, delayed, and over-budget Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail project, a bill introduced to the California State Senate last week comes up with a simpler solution: just add more freeway lanes, and get rid of the speed limit...

  • San Luis Obispo, CA National Drive Electric Week 2018 [Credit Justin Bradshaw SLO Climate Coalition]
    What effect do you expect the Green New Deal to have for electric cars? Twitter poll results

    If the goal of the Green New Deal proposed by Democrats in Congress is to get people talking about a transition to renewable energy, then it looks to be gaining traction. The Senate generated controversy on both sides of the aisle by proposing to hold a token vote on the proposal. Studies have...

  • Volkswagen ID Neo concept, 2016 Paris auto show
    Ahead of electric-car production, VW demands suppliers cut carbon emissions

    As Volkswagen ramps up to build a new generation of mass-market electric vehicles in the aftermath of its diesel scandal, regulators and environmental groups will likely be paying close attention to their emissions—especially the emissions created in making them. The Financial Times, in a...

  • 2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec 4Matic

    While Volkswagen has reached a historic settlement and had to buy back hundreds of thousands of its diesel cars in the U.S., it isn’t the only automaker to be investigated for cheating on diesel emissions. Fiat Chrysler recently agreed to recall its Ram and Jeep EcoDiesels and pay owners for misleading advertising claims. A third case, against Mercedes-Benz Bluetec diesels, just won approval by a court in New Jersey and can now proceed. Previously dismissed for lack of plaintiffs' standing, on Friday chief judge Jose Linares of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey ruled that a...

  • Smokestacks pollution air quality
    Don't worry about coal, electric cars are still cleaner

    One of the easiest ways for electric-car drivers to get in an argument is discussing how much coal-fired electricity contributes to pollution. Now a new study by BNEF (a Bloomberg spinoff) can help give electric-car drivers some peace of mind in these arguments. It shows that electric cars are...

  • Exhaust emissions from tailpipe [photo: Simone Ramella, 2005, used under Creative Commons 2.0]
    Shutdown has held up EPA certification, new vehicle introductions

    Now that the government has reopened after a 35-day shutdown, EPA employees are going back to work facing a backlog. Toward the end of the shutdown last week, executives at all three major Detroit automakers expressed concern about certification delays that could affect new models they plan to...

  • Smokestacks pollution air quality
    EPA enforcement efforts slide 85 percent under Trump administration

    Not only do polluters have lower standards to meet under the Trump administration, they may not really have to meet those standards at all. That's the conclusion of a new study, published by the Washington Post, that shows enforcement activity has fallen drastically in the past two years since...

  • 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC
    Lifting the hammer: Germany considers limits on Autobahn speeds

    Efforts to curb global warming have led Germany to propose limiting speeds on its famous Autobahns. Facing heavy fines from the European Union if it fails to meet greenhouse-gas reduction targets, the country's committee on the future of transport put forward a series of draft proposals that...

  • 2019 Chevrolet Volt
    Trump on electric cars, tailpipe tests, tech to clean up engines: Today's Car News

    EVgo launches its first ultra-fast charger in the desert. Microwave ignition claims to clean up internal combustion. And a group proposes publishing its own independent emissions tests. All this and more on Green Car Reports. "All-electric is not going to work," President Trump said in an interview...

  • MWI microwave ignition module

    Former Porsche AG CEO Wendelin Wiedeking, who waged a failed takeover of the Volkswagen Group ten years ago, is reportedly one of the backers of a new venture that, at face value, is making claims that sound very much like those made of what was then the favored tech for VW and Audi: TDI diesel. The idea, belonging to a company called MWI (Micro Wave Ignition), which presented the technology at a conference in Hanover, Germany, last week, involves igniting fuel with pulsed microwaves instead of spark plugs (or even glow plugs). Engineers at MWI, according to a Bloomberg report, claim that...

  • Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) on a Peugeot 308
    Independent group aims to be for emissions what NCAP or IIHS is for crash safety

    A newly formed organization called Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) wants to make impartial emissions ratings available to vehicle shoppers. Using a simple rating from A (best) to H (worst), they would tell you, at a quick glance, how much you’re endangering the health of your family with...

  • Exhaust emissions from tailpipe [photo: Simone Ramella, 2005, used under Creative Commons 2.0]
    Oil industry funding supports campaign to roll back fuel-economy rules

    A new investigative report by the New York Times has revealed the puppeteer pulling the strings in the Trump administration's efforts to undo fuel-economy and emissions improvements: no surprise, the oil industry. Backed by America's largest refiners and organizations tied to or funded by the Koch...

  • Smokestacks pollution air quality
    At climate talks, Trump team plans to promote coal

    At climate talks scheduled for next month, where nations are expected to set up rules to follow to meet targets set out in the Paris Climate Accord in 2015, the Trump administration is planning a sideshow to promote fossil fuels. President Trump notoriously announced six months after taking office...

  • Smog over Los Angeles, courtesy Flickr user steven-buss
    Colorado sides with California standards but won't yet mandate electric vehicles

    Colorado last week formally joined the ranks of states that are in some way choosing to adopt California’s rules for emissions, rather than those of the federal government. With a unanimous vote by the state’s Air Quality Control Commission, Colorado is joining Pennsylvania and...

  • Steve and Janet Wozniak with new 2016 Tesla Model S, December 2016  [source: Steve Wozniak Facebook]
    Ghosn out at Nissan, VW I.D. names, Faraday Future soap opera: Today's Car News

    Nissan announced it planned to remove Chairman Carlos Ghosn after an investigation revealed alleged financial misdealing. VW has no fun trademarking names for its new series of I.D. electric cars. The EPA plans to tighten emissions rules on heavy trucks. And cross-lawsuits reveal the underlying...

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