fuel efficiency
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Critical List: MIT recreates photosynthesis; City of Austin goes 100 percent renewable
MIT created an "artificial leaf" that recreates photosynthesis.
In Germany, they've got so much wind-generated electricity, they’re giving it away.
Driving 75 mph isn't fuel efficient, ahem, Maine.
Austin's going to be the largest local government using only renewable energy to power its municipal buildings. -
Mythbusters: debunking the claim that fuel economy standards ‘kill people’
Opponents of fuel-efficiency standards say the push toward smaller cars increases traffic fatalities, but it could be big cars that pose a danger.
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Critical List: Shell spills oil in the Arctic; the Northwest Passage opens
A Shell oil platform in the Arctic is leaking oil. The company won't say how much but will say that the spill is under control.
The Interior Department is looking into treatment of Arctic scientist Charles Monnett, who is under investigation for his work on polar bears.
Why real world fuel efficiency is so much lower than fuel efficiency standards. -
Trucks and buses get efficiency standards for the first time ever
President Obama has announced the first ever emissions standards for trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles. They'll be shooting for a 9 to 23 percent reduction in fuel consumption by 2018, depending on the type of vehicle. Big rigs will need to achieve approximately a 20 percent reduction, for example; garbage trucks will need more like 10 percent.
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Critical List: Al Gore curses about climate skepticism; garden thieves steal tomatoes
Sometimes even Al Gore can’t resist cursing when he talks about climate skeptics. Listen here.
EPA's scientific integrity policy doesn't do a particularly good job at its intended purpose: protecting scientists from political influence.
Heavy-duty trucks have to meet fuel efficiency standards too. No word yet on monster trucks. -
Making fuel-efficient cars will create hundreds of thousands of jobs
Jobs … who needs 'em? Not Congress, apparently. (The unemployed thank you for that debt deal! Or not.) But it turns out that the new fuel economy standards that President Obama announced last week will create jobs! Somewhere between about 500,000 and 600,000 of them by 2030, according to a report by Ceres, a group that works on sustainability issues:
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Issa wants cheaper cars, more climate change
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), whose official role as chairman of the House oversight committee is to be an administrative gadfly, is investigating the new fuel economy standard the Obama administration announced last Friday.
Issa is concerned about how the Obama administration negotiated with car manufacturers over these standards, which will push the average fuel economy of the country's fleet of new cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The problem, according to Issa, is that the standards could make cars cost more money and limit consumer choice. -
Obama fuel efficiency deal could leave loophole for Detroit
New fuel efficiency standards, expected to be announced tomorrow, give auto manufacturers a chance to re-negotiate after 2021.
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Auto manufacturers don't trust people to buy efficient cars
The federal government is proposing a new fuel efficiency standard of 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025. This is fairly modest, on a global scale -- it would require a 5 percent increase every year from 2017 onwards, but Europe is on track to hit 60 MPG by 2020, so it can certainly be done. Car manufacturers aren't happy about the prospect, though, and are pushing for a lower standard.
Their objections: It could add thousands to the cost of a new vehicle (whereas using less $4-a-gallon gas would probably only save hundreds per vehicle every year). And more to the point, it would require them to make smaller cars. This is America -- who's going to buy a smaller car? Where would you keep your ATV? Where would you mount your buck? For god's sake, man, where would you hang your truck balls? THIS IS NOT WHAT WE FOUGHT THE NAZIS FOR BY JIMINY.