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cars

  • Think all-electric vehicles coming to the U.S.

    Ray Lane, the managing partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is about to announce some news. (He’s up on stage with Jan-Olaf Willums, CEO of Think Global AS, and Wilber James, managing general partner of RockPort Capital Partners.) Ah. He’s launching Think North America — bringing Think vehicles to the U.S. Hundreds of the […]

    David Roberts Technology

  • Reflective paint and glaze can reduce the need for A/C in your car

    The following post is by Earl Killian, guest blogger at Climate Progress.

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    Cool Car in IRCalifornia's AB 32 cap on greenhouse gas emissions has its regulatory agencies working to find a set of measures that will amount to savings enough to cut 2020 emissions by about 30 percent. Since 12 years is too short to change California's vehicle fleet or its power plants, myriad measures are being considered, each rather small but hoped to make a difference cumulatively.

    One such effort is to find paints and coatings to reduce how hot cars get when parked, so the driver is less likely to turn on the air conditioner:

    Joseph Romm Culture

  • The unthinkable humiliation of biking, part two

    Remember that dumb State Farm ad? Here’s another of the same ilk: State Farm bowed to pressure and pulled their ad. Will the same happen to Farmers? (via Streetsblog)

    David Roberts Culture

  • The gasoline tax is regressive, but only for upper-income groups

    After I argued against McCain's summer gas-tax freeze, I received an email, the basic thrust of which was, "but everybody knows a gasoline tax is regressive, so how can progressives endorse it?" Well, as we will see, everybody doesn't know a gasoline tax is regressive. In fact:

    • The poor are more likely not to buy any gasoline (i.e., to not own a car at all),
    • poor families own fewer cars (and much fewer of the fuel-inefficient SUVs and minivans), and
    • the poor tend to walk and use mass transit more.

    Maybe the best description [PDF] of the situation is from a Dec. 2003 study for the state of California:

    Joseph Romm Uncategorized

  • The automotive equivalent of high heels

    Was looking for an electric vehicle and this came up. Seriously -- six batteries? And a suicide trunk?

    Part of me kind of wants it.

    Adam Browning Cities

  • State Farm pulls bike-bashing ad

    Remember that stupid ad from State Farm, where the natty professional laments that gas prices have gotten so high he’s been forced — gasp — to ride a bike to work? Oh, the humiliation. Well, apparently the hubbub about the ad got so heated that it made its way back to State Farm. In response, […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • Carmakers take anti-Cali talking points to ‘Blue Dog’ House Democrats

    It’s no secret that American auto companies are working overtime to impede California’s ability to set its own tailpipe emission standards. They’ve had a few setbacks in court, but they’ve got the U.S. EPA in their back pocket — witness Johnson’s refusal to grant Cali’s waiver. There’s been some talk recently about Congress overriding Johnson, […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Industrial agrofuels: enemy of the entire planet

    coal kills Apologies for the terrible photo, but it was pouring (and snowing) when I took it. That's Duff Badgley again, the dirty hippie, protesting at a Safeway store. You can see the marquee advertising the price of B-5 (5 percent) biodiesel at $4.20 a gallon.

    Biofuel proponents are not going to like having their fuel compared to coal, but think about it. Most of the CO2 in the United States comes from liquid fossil fuels. Replace them with today's biofuels, and you would have an unmitigated ecological disaster of planet-killing proportions. In other words, the more we use, the worse it gets.

    Removing mountaintops and dumping the tailings in mountain streams is beyond bad, but biofuels have already razed more ecosystems than all the coal mines in history, and coal has never contributed to food shortages. So, which sign is more appropriate? The icing on the cake, of course, is the new science pointing out that biofuels are also worse for global warming.

    Biodiversivist Culture

  • ‘State Farm can get you back behind the wheel’

    Witness the humiliation as this distinguished professional is forced to … my God, I can barely say it … ride a bike to work. Do something, State Farm! Anything! "You know that place where you’re swapping four wheels for two? Oh, man, I’m there." Says Streetsblog: "Yeah, I know that place. It’s called a city." […]

    David Roberts Culture