Politics

If you live in parts of California, electric cars--from the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid all the way up to the Tesla Model S--are no longer uncommon. The streets of Palo Alto, in the center of Silicon Valley, are practically crawling with Teslas these days. But in other parts of the country, you may...

Several large companies are prepared to pay for carbon emissions in the near future.

Once more into the fray: Another state's car dealers are pushing for legislation to ban Tesla Motors from selling its electric cars directly to buyers. This time it's Ohio. And legislators have unexpectedly moved up a hearing on the new law to today, according to a letter from Tesla Motors...

Consider this your last warning: If you're planning on getting a charging station for a plug-in electric car, you only have 30 days. More specifically, at least, you'll have to get it up and running by December 31 this year in order to take advantage of a Federal income-tax credit of 30 percent of...

Modern electric cars went on sale three years ago, and now we're starting to see assessments of their progress from a variety of perspectives. Last year, WWF Canada (the panda people, not the professional wrestlers) set a goal of having 600,000 electric vehicles on Canadian roads by 2020 – or...

You never know what you may find if you read through public comments on government proposals. That's how we found a broad hint that the next version of the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid will have a continuous all-electric range of at least 10 miles. Remember that the current car, which the EPA rates...

Today, California buys the largest number of plug-in electric cars by far of any North American state or province. But the many civic benefits of electric cars--from zero emissions to greater energy efficiency--are inspiring other locales to step up to the plate. Last Friday, the government of...

In case you hadn't noticed, it's Halloween. So how could we not comment on an article whose byline reads Gore and Blood? Their topic may be slightly esoteric, but it has big implications for our energy future. It's all about stranded assets--those that lose economic value well ahead of their...

Last Thursday, the governors of eight [blue] states pledged to cooperate toward a goal of putting 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on their roads by 2025. The cooperative programs are meant to make it easier for their citizens to buy and use zero-emission vehicles. While the steps cited so far in...

Natural gas flaring in North Dakota may be wasting revenue and harming the environment.

The power to contract and compel medallion owners to purchase the Nissan NV200 from Nissan for 10 years does not exist in the City Charter. And with that sentence, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shlomo Hagler ruled yesterday that New York City's plan to standardize its 14,000 medallion taxis is...

The rules for vehicle gas mileage are pretty much locked down from now through 2025. The math is complicated, but vehicles in 2025 will have to reach a fleet-wide average of 54.5 mpg by 2025--or about 42 mpg on their window stickers. So what's the next battleground over reducing emissions? It's...

The results of German national elections don't get much news coverage in the U.S. But the re-election of Angela Merkel as chancellor on September 22 could prove to have an effect on your future Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz. At issue is the desire of the European Union to impose even more stringent...

A new report says a fixed gas tax won't be able to keep up with rising road construction costs.

Governor Jerry Brown marked National Plug-In Day by signing six bills that should help promote electric cars.

Ridesharing is now legal in California. The state has created a new set of regulations for this alternative transportation system.

State and national auto-dealer groups have been battling Tesla Motors for four years now. The dealers want to stop Tesla from selling its electric cars directly to buyers, and are working to change state laws so Tesla will have to conduct all sales through independently-owned third parties--which...

It stands to reason: Take all vehicles off the roads, and the air will get cleaner. But now we can answer the question, "How much?" And it turns out that the answer is, "A lot." In a new paper, A national day with near zero emissions and its effect on primary and secondary pollutants, published in...

Stricter limits on new power plant greenhouse gas emissions and a weak export market have put the American coal industry on the ropes.

At the 2013 G-20 Summit in St. Petersburg, world leaders agreed to begin the process of ending oil subsidies, and to phase out HFCs.