An automobile company lobbying for stricter emissions standards? It might sound like an unlikely tale, but not when the bottom line is at stake. General Motors is pressuring the South Korean government to impose tougher standards for diesel emissions than it is currently considering. Here's why: The automaker is trying to increase the competitiveness of its Korean affiliate, GM Daewoo. GM Daewoo won't have any diesel cars ready by 2005, when Seoul plans to impose moderate emissions standards, but by 2006, it will be ready to sell cars that meet far stricter standards. If the company can convince the government …

Orange County, Calif., is generally associated with urban sprawl, not magnificent parklands -- but a massive new land deal could help change that. The 4,738-acre "County Great Park" will be bigger than New York's Central Park and San Francisco's Golden Gate Park put together, and will include riparian corridors, botanical gardens, sports and educational facilities, and plenty of green space. The park will rise on the site of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which shut down in 1999. County approval for the park came this month, following years of bitter battle between those who wanted the open …

Ford Motor Company backpedaled yesterday on its promise to increase the fuel economy of sport utility vehicles 25 percent by 2020. It now says it will continue to try to improve gas mileage but will not set a fixed deadline for reaching the 25-percent goal. The company chalked up the change in plan to technological difficulties and the lack of federal tax credits for improved efficiency. The decision is likely to have ramifications throughout the industry, as the initial Ford pledge spurred General Motors and the Chrysler Group to follow suit. Environmentalists reacted with confusion and dismay to the news: …

Bulldozers, tractors, irrigation equipment, and other diesel-powered off-road machines will be subject to stricter emissions standards under a new plan announced yesterday by the U.S. EPA. The plan calls for cutting emissions by up to 95 percent, a move that would bring the standards for off-road vehicles in line with those for cars and trucks for the first time in decades. Off-road diesel engines are second only to power plants in emissions associated with lung cancer, asthma, and other health threats. The tougher rules are expected to prevent 9,600 premature deaths per year and save tens of billions of dollars …

To the dismay of environmentalists, state and local officials in Utah will be able to claim the rights to thousands of miles of dirt roads on federal lands, under the terms of an agreement announced yesterday by Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Utah Gov. Mark Leavitt (R). Leavitt and Norton said the deal would prevent unnecessary confusion and litigation over who has the right to control and maintain roads in Utah, but enviros fear that it will enable the feds to give away public lands to special interests, resulting in more encroachment on parks and wilderness areas. "There is a …

The massive economic crisis in Argentina has had an unexpected silver lining for the environment: It has led to a surge in the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in cars, a cleaner fuel than either diesel or gasoline. Argentina is home to the third-largest natural-gas reserves in Latin America and the world's largest fleet of natural-gas cars, at about 800,000, or 15 percent of personal vehicles. After the peso was devalued in January 2002, gasoline and diesel prices jumped by more than 30 percent, making CNG the most economical fuel available. "There's a revolution going on in the energy …

While sales of many big SUVs are dipping, Hummers are rumbling out of showrooms at a rate of 3,000 per month, topping the list of best-selling large luxury SUVs in the U.S., despite a starting price of $50,000. Some buyers say they feel patriotic in a massive Hummer H2, the civilian sibling of the military Humvees now doing active duty in Iraq, and Hummer dealers report that sales have risen with the war. "When I turn on the TV, I see wall-to-wall Humvees, and I'm proud," said H2 owner Sam Bernstein. "They're not out there in Audi A4's." The Sierra …

More than four months after the Prestige oil tanker sank off the coast of Spain, a new plan is underway for permanently cleaning up what proved to be the worst environmental disaster in the nation's history. About half of the ship's load of 77,000 tons of fuel oil has already leaked out and devastated the local environment; now a Spanish company will attempt to extract and capture the remaining oil from the wreckage more than two miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic. In work expected to start this summer, the company will first attempt to affix a valve to …

Speaking of polluting ships, U.S. officials have recently uncovered a rash of illegal sludge dumping at sea, and they say it may only be the tip of the iceberg. A number of ships have been caught releasing tons of oily, toxic sludge that's produced in their engine rooms, even as captains, crews, and corporate managers go to extremes to cover up their dirty deeds, doing everything from faking waste-disposal receipts to painting over brackets used to bypass pollution controls to lying to grand juries. Oftentimes the only way to catch a polluting ship is to get testimony from crew members, …

Sports utility vehicles, vans, and pickup trucks will be subject to slightly more stringent fuel-economy standards under a new rule released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Beginning in the 2007 model year, auto manufacturers will have to attain a fleet average of 22.2 miles per gallon for those vehicles, together classified as "light trucks." That's just 1.5 mpg more than the current standard, and still well below the 27.5 mpg requirement for cars. Critics of the new rule say it merely reflects what automakers were planning to do anyway, but the DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defended …