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Switching to diesel from gasoline, the monumental regulatory effort launched by the European Union in the late 1990s, ended up delivering only thimbles-full of avoided greenhouse pollution compared to competing gasoline engines. But it made the air in European cities significantly less breathable thanks to diesel particulates and nitrogen oxides.

A new car engine will eventually come on the scene. This week's car watching sites have reacted to Tuesday's announcement from Mazda with interest. At a time when the total focus appears to be on electric cars as our driving future, Mazda is ushering in a type of car engine that they call Skyactiv-X. The Hiroshima, Japan-datelined Tuesday announcement from Mazda said it is introducing the world's "first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition." Reuters quoted what Mazda R&D head Kiyoshi Fujiwara told reporters. "We think it is an imperative and fundamental job for us to pursue the ideal...

Unmasking an Illegal Cartel The  German auto scandal just got much bigger according to a new report by the Spiegel.Audi, BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, and Porsche colluded in all aspects of diesel technology.Effectively, the five corporations acted as one via a series of secret working groups that met several times a year.The Spiegel broke the story with its report on the Auto Syndicate Scandal.The story is in German, and it’s also behind a pay wall. Eurointelligence has a nice Email report. Spiegel magazine has an absolutely shocking account of a cartel between the five motor companies – VW, Daimler, BMM, Porsche,...

GERMANY'S top stock index was flashing red after shares in the country's biggest carmakers plunged over a fresh investigation into the diesel emission scandal. The DAX tumbled to its lowest level in more than three months, as investors rushed to sell Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. The manufacturing giants are being probed amid allegations of collusion over diesel emission treatment systems and cost agreements. Fears of heavy fines helped send share prices down by around three per cent.

The research team ended up turning to the auto-performance tuning community again. These hard-core hobbyists and professionals share leaked function sheets so they can make aftermarket modifications to their cars... Audi was looking for a way to stop the rattling sound that diesel engines are known to make as the engine starts up. They allegedly solved the problem by injecting extra fuel as the engine initiated combustion. The extra fuel increased emissions. So, the “acoustic condition” was modified to discern when lab testing was occurring so that the Audis in question could pass their emissions tests and also have nice...

Just the fact that the [Nazi-era Volkswagenwerks] factory basically functioned as a concentration camp during the war, and also that the members of the Porsche family, primarily Ferdinand Porsche and Anton Piëch, absconded with the cash in the final days of the war and then later built the private company in order to justify taking the money. There's also the financial factor, where a lot of Volkswagen owners in Germany were basically getting nothing and saying, "Why do the Americans get so much, and we get nothing?"

A forest with beetle-killed trees as seen from Mt. Fraser, British Columbia. Credit: Themightyquill/Wikimedia Commons ==================================================================================================================================== The mountain pine beetle has destroyed more than 40 million acres of forest in the western United States. That amounts to an area the size of Washington state that is strewn with conifers left for dead. The beetles introduce a fungus that prevents critical nutrients and water from traveling within a tree. Beetles also lay their eggs under the bark and the feeding larvae help kill the trees, sometimes within several weeks of the initial attack. These standing dead trees can fall at any...

Beginning on Tuesday, diesel vehicles will be banned from driving on Oslo streets because of acute levels of dangerous air pollution. On both Monday and Tuesday, weather forecasts call for cold weather and very little wind, conditions likely to cause high levels of exhaust pollution over large areas of the city. Therefore the City of Oslo will for the first time ever implement a ban on diesel vehicles on municipal roads. On Tuesday, the ban will be in effect from 6am to 10pm. It will remain in effect during those same hours for as long as air pollution levels are...

Madrid mayor, Manuela Carmena, signed a commitment to rid the pollution-stricken city of diesel-powered cars and trucks by the middle of the next decade. She joined the mayors of Paris, Athens and Mexico City in signing the deal to improve air quality at the biennial meeting of city leaders in Mexico on Thursday. She also vowed to continue in a drive for alternative vehicle use and improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians in the city. …

I have a 2013 Golf TDI Diesel that I have a strong option to give back to Volkswagen. I have been waiting for the election because I have a feeling that Clinton will continue the leftist policies of crawling up gas prices. However, I have been looking for a car, just in case. My goodness! Everything out there is chock full of electronics that will make them obsolete soon. Everything out there looks like a shiny, overgrown bug. I think I need something a bit more more butch-looking. I look longingly at jeep wranglers, but I am told that they...

A couple of good old boys in Maryland decided they would let some of the Black Lives Matters protesters in Hagerstown, Maryland know what they think of their protests. So, one followed the other's truck, which was a diesel truck and they proceeded to spew black exhaust smoke across the entire group of protesters. Check out the video below, which was originally uploaded by Aaron Gettel and then reposted by a protest supporter, Lawrence Marley Hester. Fast forward to the 1:20 mark.

Simulated sunlight powers a solar cell that converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into syngas. Credit: University of Illinois at Chicago/Jenny Fontaine ********************************************************************************************************************** Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have engineered a potentially game-changing solar cell that cheaply and efficiently converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into usable hydrocarbon fuel, using only sunlight for energy. The finding is reported in the July 29 issue of Science and was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. A provisional patent application has been filed. Unlike conventional solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity that must be stored...

There are millions of trucks on the world’s highways at any given time, carrying cargo from one place to another and spewing diesel exhaust fumes. That’s how it’s been since the dawn of trucking, that’s how it still is. But that’s not necessarily how it will be in the future. Electric trucks are a fact, though not a very popular one, which is undeserved to a certain degree. While short-haul deliveries are perfect for utilizing electric freight carriers, a long-haul electric truck would need a battery weighing 23 tons to be able to make a 500-mile journey in one go....

Dennis Gaudet has had some loyal VW customers. One of them bought his past four vehicles from Gaudet’s Volkswagen store, part of the AutoServ Dealer Group in Tilton, N.H., and had been back to the VW dealership three times since the diesel scandal erupted in September for guidance on what to do with his diesel vehicle as trade-in time approached. Each time, Gaudet says, his dealership told the customer to hang tight until more was known. “He didn’t show up a fourth time,” Gaudet said. “I happened to run into him, and he was driving a Honda.” Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/vw-diesel-scandal/tdi-toxic-vw-customers-are-moving#ixzz4CKLeP4qa

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, right, arrives for a court hearing in San Francisco Thursday. Mueller has been overseeing talks about a settlement between Volkswagen, the U.S. government, and the car company's customers. ================================================================================================================== A buyback of emissions-cheating cars was one solution Volkswagen offered in federal court Thursday, outlining an agreement between the carmaker and the Justice Department over hundreds of thousands of diesel vehicles that were sold in the U.S. despite not meeting pollution standards. Car owners would be able to choose between having their vehicle fixed or accepting a buyback; financial details weren't revealed about the plan, which...

American drivers are now enjoying gasoline prices that haven't been this low since January 2009. Data from the AAA shows that the average annual price for a gallon of gas has been below $2 a gallon for about a month now. Just within the past week, the national average gas price ticked below $1.80 for a gallon of regular gas, a drop of 20 cents just since the beginning of 2016. "I think you have probably another three to four weeks of prices in this area - I think we could drop another nickel or so," said Denton Cinquegrana, chief...

Royal Dutch Shell is switching its trucking fleet to more liquefied natural gas-fueled vehicles in Houston and Louisiana as more companies increasingly move away from dirtier diesel fuel. The use of LNG and compressed natural gas -- another new CNG fueling station opened Thursday in Houston -- in commercial vehicles has rapidly expanded because of the nation's cheap and bountiful supply of natural gas. Shell said Thursday it partnered with Miami-based Ryder transportation company for 15 new, heavy-duty LNG trucks to support its oil and gas logistics operations in Houston and Lafayette, Louisiana. The 15 new trucks will replace diesel-fueled...

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates lead the Gulf Cooperation Council in raising energy prices and cutting subsidies in response to fiscal pressures created by the slump in crude oil prices, according to Arab Petroleum Investments Corp. (APICORP), Dammam, Saudi Arabia. While welcoming the trend as "a step in the right direction, APICORP warns, in a review of reforms introduced so far, that "the path for energy-pricing reform will be long and fraught with risks." Increases in energy prices traditionally kept low by governments reduce household welfare and increase input costs of industries, the group notes. It urged governments...

Domestic fuels have been heavily subsidized, but Riyadh has been under pressure to bring its spending under control as its budget deficit in 2015 ballooned to Riyal 367 billion due to lower revenue from crude exports. Jadwa estimated the cost of energy subsidies at USD 61 billion this year, of which diesel accounted for USD 23 billion and gasoline for USD 9.5 billion. The deficits represent a sharp turnaround from just a few years ago, before oil prices tumbled in mid-2014. Riyadh maintained high spending this year, and launched a military intervention against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, by tapping into...

Tankers laden with diesel heading from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Europe are turning around in mid-ocean as European storage is nearly filled to the brim. At least three 37,000 tonne tankers - Vendome Street, Atlantic Star and Atlantic Titan - have made U-turns in the Atlantic ocean in recent days and are now heading back west, according to Reuters ship tracking. It is unclear if the tankers will discharge their diesel cargoes in the Gulf Coast or will await new orders, according to traders and shipping brokers. "European prices are so soft," one trader said. "Sellers must see better...