Politics

  • Gasoline prices in California, August 2012 [photo: Brenda Priddy]

    Rioting in the streets is the sword of Damocles hanging over every decision a politician makes—especially when those streets happen to be French. And rioting in the streets is what put an end to a new gas-tax proposal in France this week. Technically, its wasn't even a straight gas tax. DON'T MISS: Trump administration plans to end electric-car tax credits The French government proposed to tax carbon, which would have added about 15 cents a gallon to the price of gasoline, or a little less than 3 percent, starting Jan. 1. It may not sound like much, but the proposal filled the streets...

  • 2019 Chevrolet Volt
    Tesla Model 3, long-range Nissan Leaf, cutting tax credits: Today's Car News

    The Trump administration plans to end tax credits for plug-in cars. The EPA released official range and efficiency estimates for the Tesla Model 3 Mid Range. The long range Nissan Leaf is a no-show at the 2018 LA Auto Show—now we hear why. And we ask what should happen with the Chevrolet...

  • Trump Chief Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow
    Trump administration plans to end electric-car tax credits

    As tax credits begin to expire for some automakers and the electric-car industry begins to lobby to extend them, the Trump administration plans to end them altogether. President Donald Trump's Chief Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow told Reuters that the administration plans to end the $7,500 federal...

  • First 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car    [photo: Patrick Reid]
    EV Drive coalition begins lobbying effort to save tax credit

    Members of the lame-duck Congress all got letters on their desks Tuesday stating why the electric-car tax credit should be revised and extended. Along with a five-point fact sheet made public Tuesday, the effort is the first salvo in a battle by the newly-formed EV Drive Coalition to extend the...

  • Mother-daughter team installs battery packs in Chevrolet Volt electric cars
    Trump vows retaliation against GM for layoffs

    After General Motors announced on Monday that it will kill the Chevy Volt as part of an effort to streamline its lineup, close five factories, and lay off 15 percent of its workers, President Trump took to Twitter to vow retaliation for the damage the layoffs could do to the U.S. economy. "The U.S...

  • Image from 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric-car ad by Ourisman Chevrolet, Rockville, Maryland
    GM's national electric car plan may not be all that, scientist argues

    Just as General Motors prepared to release record profits on Wednesday, the respected Union of Concerned Scientists took issue with the company's plan last week to develop a plan to require electric car sales nationwide. GM is a leader in electric cars and is expected to be the second automaker to...

  • Smog over Los Angeles, courtesy Flickr user steven-buss

    Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and state attorneys general from California and Maryland said Friday that they will vigorously fight proposed rollbacks by the EPA to federal emissions standards ahead of public hearings scheduled for next week. "We’re not interested in taking a punch. We want to counter-punch," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Friday. For three days beginning Sept. 24, federal officials will hold public hearings about the proposed rollback to federal fuel-economy standards offered by President Donald Trump's administration. Included in the proposal from the...

  • Smog over Los Angeles, courtesy Flickr user steven-buss
    Fewer than 1 in 3 new car shoppers agree with proposed EPA rollback, according to poll

    Only 29 percent of new-car shoppers say they agree with rollbacks to federal fuel-economy standards proposed by the Trump administration, Autolist reported Tuesday. The survey asked more than 1,100 new-car shoppers if they agreed with the proposed plan to freeze federal emissions standards at 2020...

  • Exhaust emissions from tailpipe [photo: Simone Ramella, 2005, used under Creative Commons 2.0]
    OpEd: Who pays for principle in Trump's war on lower emissions and trade?

    Last week the Trump administration unveiled a broad drawdown of fuel-economy regulations that had been aimed at cutting emissions from passenger vehicles. In the 978-page proposal, administration officials argued those rules implemented by the Obama administration would create lighter, potentially...

  • Western Star semi tractor used to promote Fitzgerald Glider Kits
    States join to halt EPA's reversal on "glider" semi trucks

    Sixteen states joined an effort this week to petition courts to review a rollback of an Obama-era regulation that capped the number of "glider" trucks, Transport Topics reported. Glider trucks are new bodies fitted with older diesel engines that predate emissions controls. Those trucks can emit up...

  • ExxonMobil oil refinery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by WClarke [CC BY-SA 4.0]
    ExxonMobil leaves conservative anti-climate lobbying group

    Following a public spat over climate change legislation, oil giant ExxonMobil has pulled its membership from the Koch brothers-backed anti-climate-change lobbying group, American Legislative Exchange Council. Neither ExxonMobil nor ALEC has commented publicly on the reasons for the company's...

  • Canadian reader K's new Tesla Model 3
    Electric car rebates end in Ontario, Canada

    Following the election of Conservative Doug Ford as premier July 7, Ontario, Canada, has canceled the province's generous tax incentives for electric cars, according to an announcement on Wednesday on the Ministry of Transportation's website. The move was widely expected after Ford ran on a...

  • Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy

    The retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced on Wednesday could have dramatic and detrimental effects on environmental quality. Since the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, Kennedy has been a pivotal vote on the court, siding with the majority on at least two crucial rulings to expand the reach of the EPA. The most critical, from the standpoint of those interested in cleaner transportation, was his ruling in "Massachusetts v. the Environmental Protection Agency," which ordered the EPA to determine whether carbon-dioxide constitutes a pollutant. That led to...

  • EPA administrator Scott Pruitt  [photo from 2014]
    EPA Administrator Pruitt recruited top oil industry executives, emails show

    EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt left little to chance in trying to make the agency more friendly to the oil industry after he took office last year, according to new emails revealed in a report by Buzzfeed News. The Sierra Club obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request and...

  • Flooded Car
    EPA overturning of fuel economy increases requires review, agency watchdog says

    The EPA's Science Advisory Board, tasked with agency oversight, is taking issue with at least three of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's signature decisions. First, according to a Bloomberg report, is Pruitt's decision to freeze fuel economy standards and eliminate increases that had been approved...

  • EPA administrator Scott Pruitt  [photo from 2014]
    CFA study shows better gas mileage standards offset cost of modern safety tech

    Cars that get good gas mileage aren't unsafe. In fact, gas savings have more than paid for safety improvements in modern cars, as well as for the technology needed to make the gains in fuel economy.

  • General Motors CEO Mary Barra provides an update on the ignition switch recall investigation
    Automakers may not want to roll back fuel-economy standards after all

    Averting a showdown between 17 states and the federal government may take priority over industry-friendly fuel-economy targets. At least, that's what they're saying. Reports leading up to a May 11 meeting between leaders of America's automotive industry and President Donald Trump indicate that...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf with EVgo fast charger at NJ Turnpike Molly Pitcher travel plaza, Feb 2018
    PG&E offers new $3,000 rebate to Nissan Leaf buyers

    PG&E announced a new $3,000 purchase incentive for new Nissan Leafs that comes directly off the purchase price and on top of a $7,000 rebate from the state and the $7,500 federal tax credit. With all incentives PG&E customers can buy a new Leaf for $16,500.

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV pre-production

    To address a sudden loss of power, some Chevrolet Bolt EVs get new battery packs. We explain why. Subaru files for a trademark on a new name for its upcoming plug-in hybrid. Volkswagen releases fuel economy figures for its new Jetta. And we ask: "When will buying gasoline cars seem weird?" All this and more on Green Car Reports.

  • BMW ActiveE electric car in front of old gas pumps, Belvidere, NJ   [photo: Tom Moloughney]
    17 states have passed extra fees on electric cars; is that fair?

    According to a new editorial by the Sierra Club, 17 states have now instituted new fees on electric cars—fees that other car owners don't have to pay—to try to recoup some of the money that electric-car drivers don't pay in gas taxes.

  • Gas pump
    Carmakers want emission, CAFE tweaks, not huge rollbacks, but won't say so publicly

    As promised, the Trump administration has embarked on regulatory rollbacks across many fronts, some immediate and others taking longer. It remains unclear whether the EPA's plan to loosen carbon-dioxide emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles will survive inevitable court challenges...

  • National Plug-In Day 2012: San Francisco, with 60 Nissan Leafs in front of the Golden Gate Bridge
    Deal between EPA, California on auto emissions may still be possible

    Over the many months EPA administrator Scott Pruitt signaled his intention to revisit the Obama administration's emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, California warned that it would not go along with any reductions. The state has been allowed to set its own emission standards for...

  • Gas pump
    EPA does not set fuel-economy limits: get this right, journalists!

    Journalism as an industry is under great pressure these days. There are far more people writing "content" than in past decades, and in general they are having to produce more of it for less money than they did 10, 20, or 50 years ago. That's no excuse, however, for getting the basics wrong. DON'T...

  • EPA administrator Scott Pruitt  [photo from 2014]
    Pruitt's EPA emission rollback reasoning may well fail in court

    Despite the sturm und drang around the announcement by embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt that he will relax emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, not much will happen immediately. His determination last week that the Obama administration was "incorrect" and that the limits on those...

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