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Entries Tagged as 'automobiles'

Volkswagen’s Dark Side

June 28th, 2011 · 1 Comment

Volkswagen has made noise with pretensions of being the greenest automaker. Greenpeace UK has taken a look at Volkswagen’s claims and determined that those pretensions could just be noisy greenwashing.  Volkswagen—which has previously stated it wants to be ‘the most eco-friendly automaker in the world’—has seriously dark-sided views on fuel efficiency standards and CO2 emissions. […]

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Tags: automobiles

The Value of Zero

April 18th, 2011 · Comments Off on The Value of Zero

What is the value of zero? Is it nothing? Imagine zero dependency on foreign oil. Zero polllutants in our environment. Zero depletion of the ozone. Suddenly zero starts adding up … Zero is worth worth more than nothing. Zero is worth everything. Nissan’s Leaf advertising is capturing a vision of a different path forward that […]

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Tags: advertising · automobiles · environmental

How regulation came to be: Filling it up with Ethyl+

February 15th, 2011 · 1 Comment

This guest from dsteffen is an enthralling read providing a substantive window on a story that includes deliberate scientific learning, industrial problem solving, industrial efforts to undermine science through aggressive promotion of falsehoods, and how government regulation provided payoffs many times even exaggerated definitions of the cost of implementation. It is a story that has […]

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Tags: automobiles · Energy · environmental · political symbols · pollution

Energy COOL: Progressive Auto Prize

September 16th, 2010 · Comments Off on Energy COOL: Progressive Auto Prize

As I write this, the count-down is on for the Progressive Automotive X-Prize winners announcement, which will start in just a few minutes. (live video) I had been planning, with the award announcement, to take the time to do a post on this prize, the process, and the winners. In short, this Prize (with 12 […]

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Tags: automobiles · Energy · politics

Nissan’s aggressive Leaf campaign sets an example

September 13th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Last evening, my better 95+% was flipping through the channels and received the rare: stop, go back to that. What was that? A Nissan “innovation” advertisement in which the Nissan Leaf played a prominent roll, “if you never needed to buy another gallon of gas …” Watching this well-done advertisement made me think of Who […]

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Tags: advertising · automobiles · clean emissions · climate change · environmental · Global Warming · political symbols

Understating the Value of New CAFE Standard Targets?

September 15th, 2009 · 3 Comments

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) today released proposed rules for implementating the increase in CAFE standards, beyond the Congressional mandate, as announced this past May. In short, this deal between the Obama Administration and the auto industry accelerates the improvement in light vehicle fuel efficiency across the fleet average (the […]

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Tags: analysis · automobiles · Energy · energy efficiency · gasoline · oil

Walking the walk …

August 23rd, 2009 · Comments Off on Walking the walk …

Here is a guest post from the passionate citisven advocating that we tie our laces and walk the walk. Yup, you read that right. Time to strap on your preferred footwear, turn off the intertubes, and give those rusty bones a fair shake. ‘Cause you know what they say on gravity-rich planet Earth: These boots […]

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Tags: automobiles

From Cash-to-Clunkers to The Longer Term

August 11th, 2009 · 2 Comments

The strong success of the CARS Program (WIN on economic stimulus, with wins environmentally, energy security, and highway safety) have led to consideration of what to do next. Last week, Senators Senator Bingaman, Snowe, Kerry, and Lugar introduced S. 1620, Efficient Vehicle Leadership Act of 2009. This act would set up a feebate program, much […]

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Tags: analysis · automobiles · Energize America

Is it worth $2000 to the country to increase the MPG of one vehicle by say 10 mpg?

August 10th, 2009 · 3 Comments

This is a question that came into my inbox amid an exchange about the CARS Program: Is it worth $2000 to the country to increase the MPG of one vehicle by say 10 mpg? Of course, that is a stove piped question (and somewhat out of context one as that increased MPG, by the way, […]

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Tags: automobiles · Congress · Energy · energy efficiency · fuel economy · gasoline · government energy policy

Robbing from Peter to Pay (a lesser) Paul: CFC’s funding stream

August 4th, 2009 · Comments Off on Robbing from Peter to Pay (a lesser) Paul: CFC’s funding stream

While the Cash for Clunkers (CARS Program) should be extended, we have to be clear here: this is an economic stimulus and jobs program which happens to have some energy security and environmental benefits.  Yet, the Obama Administration (Office of Management and Budget?) was the power behind the scenes in seeing that the funding stream […]

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Tags: automobiles · Congress · government energy policy · renewable energy