Free Republic

Just when U.S. airlines are experiencing an active summer travel season, with four percent more passengers expected than last summer’s banner year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) weighs in on the industry. Their recent verdict: “planet-warming pollution produced by airplanes endangers human health by contributing to climate change.” Such is the basis for their “endangerment finding” under the Clean Air Act, which now triggers the legal requirement to impose the first-ever government regulations of aircraft emissions and extend the EPA’s reach into yet another segment of the U.S. economy. The announced plan to reduce aircraft emissions takes place as President...

The meltdown of California’s cap-and-trade system of reducing carbon emissions has not only thrown its climate change crusade into disarray but caused collateral damage. One victim is Gov. Jerry Brown’s $3.1 billion plan to spend auction proceeds, now on indefinite hold. It not only affects a $500 million allocation for Brown’s bullet train project, but another $500 million for “low carbon transportation and fuels.” The latter is a centerpiece of Brown’s very ambitious drive to reduce petroleum use in auto travel – the largest single source of California’s carbon emissions – by 50 percent by 2030 even though the Legislature...

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

Washington could become the first state in the nation to impose a direct tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels such as coal, gasoline and natural gas. A ballot measure before the state Legislature would create a carbon tax of $25 per metric ton of fossil fuel emissions burned in Washington, while reducing taxes. ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17xh_VRrnMU Do electric cars really help the environment? President Obama thinks so. So does Leonardo DiCaprio. And many others. The argument goes like this: Regular cars run on gasoline, a fossil fuel that pumps CO2 straight out of the tailpipe and into the atmosphere. Electric cars run on electricity. They don't burn any gasoline at all. No gas; no CO2. In fact, electric cars are often advertised as creating "zero emissions." But do they really? Let's take a closer look. First, there's the energy needed to produce the car. More than a third of the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an...

State utility regulators have expressed deep reservations to Gov. Kate Brown about a proposed bill that would fundamentally restructure Oregon's energy supply by 2040, eliminating coal-fired power and forcing utilities to serve half their customers' demand with renewable power. Commissioners and staff at the Oregon Public Utility Commission believe the bill would increase electricity costs and shift risk from utilities to ratepayers. They also say it wouldn't actually reduce carbon dioxide emissions, according to communications released to The Oregonian/OregonLive in response to a public records request. The commissioners prepared those talking points to respond to the media and legislator calls...

More than a dozen of New York City's most famed hotels are pledging to get greener. The Waldorf-Astoria New York, the Lotte New York Palace, the Pierre-A Taj Hotel and the Crowne Plaza Times Square are among the 16 city hotels - all currently thronged with tourists visiting New York for the holidays - whose owners have agreed to cut greenhouse gases from their buildings by 30 percent or more in the next decade. ...

This week at the United Nations Paris summit on climate-change, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that "even if every western nation reduced its carbon emissions to zero—a clearly impossible accomplishment—global CO2 will continue to rise." The reason is that the growing emissions from the less-developed nations will easily overwhelm whatever the West does. Still, Kerry pressed for western nations to make the commitment "because it would be a noble gesture. By sacrificing our prosperity we make reparation for the centuries of exploitation and oppression we have inflicted on our victims. Ideally, this sacrifice would earn us gratitude, but...

So Consumer Reports decided to put a 2015 Volkswagen Jetta TDI and a 2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDI to the test. To activate the car’s cheat mode, they pumped the accelerator pedal 5 times while the ignition was in the “on position” but the engine was off. To avoid being “kicked out” of the cheat mode when the car noticed the rear, undriven wheels spinning, CR simply unplugged the rear wheel speed sensors. Simple as that. Cheat mode activated. They ran their standard Consumer Reports drive cycle. This involved a city traffic simulation on the track and a 65 MPH highway...

Frustrated European officials alerted the US to Volkswagen's emissions cheating scam after the European Commission failed to act on the intel for years, German media reported on Friday. [...] "Officials from the EU informed the US environment group ICCT about the possible cheating on nitrogen oxide emissions," Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board, told WirtschaftsWoche. The weekly reported that the European Commission had been told by a Volkswagen supplier of the cheating as early as in 2011. ...

After apologizing for two months, Volkswagen is finally putting its money where its mouth is, forking over $500 to VW car owners hit by its emissions cheating scandal. The payment will come in the form a gift card that can be spent anywhere. They'll also get another card worth $500 that can only be spent on purchases or services at VW or Audi dealerships, as well as free 24-hour roadside assistance for the next three years. It's the first time owners have been compensated by the German automaker, which admitted in mid-September that its cars use software designed to cheat...

Even as Volkswagen embarks on the task of fixing the emissions systems it disabled on almost 500,000 of its diesel vehicles in the United States, the automaker faces another hurdle: persuading owners to make the repair at all. That’s because the software that allowed Volkswagen to fool federal emissions tests also lowered the car’s performance and fuel economy while the device was turned on. So for owners, the prospect of having a car’s emissions cleaned up, only to have the car perform worse — whatever the pollution — is not sitting well. “If we take a 10 percent hit in...

Breese Berkowitz of Walnut Creek bought a new 2015 Passat TDI on Sept. 12 to replace an aging Toyota Prius hybrid. Her family’s other car is a plug-in Prius, and she wanted something environmentally friendly but not another plug-in because she needed a longer range. Volkswagen had been advertising its “clean diesel” technology and Berkowitz thought the Passat — the “Eco-friendly Car of the Year,” according to Cars.com — offered great gas mileage without sacrificing performance. On Sept. 18, she and everyone learned it was a fraud, that Volkswagen had installed so-called defeat devices on 11 million Volkswagen and Audi...

Volkswagen will have to make massive savings to cope with the huge cost of its emissions cheating scandal. That was the stark message delivered to more than 20,000 Volkswagen employees by the group's new chief executive, Matthias Mueller, at a meeting in Germany on Tuesday. A former Porsche chief, Mueller took over as CEO of the giant automaker after Martin Winterkorn stood down when it became clear the group had cheated emissions tests on as many as 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. Mueller said Volkswagen would survive, but warned the road to recovery would be painful. "We must make massive...

Two top Volkswagen engineers who found they couldn’t deliver as promised a clean diesel engine for the U.S. market are at the center of a company probe into the installation of engine software designed to fool regulators, according to people familiar with the matter. The two men, Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi ’s chief engineer, and Wolfgang Hatz, developer of Porsche’s Formula One and Le Mans racing engines, were among the engineers suspended in the investigation of the emissions cheating scandal that sank the company’s market value by 43% since Sept. 18 and triggered a world-wide recall to refit the engines to...

WOLFSBURG, Germany—Two top Volkswagen engineers who found they couldn’t deliver as promised a clean diesel engine for the U.S. market are at the center of a company probe into the installation of engine software designed to fool regulators, according to people familiar with the matter. The two men, Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi ’s chief engineer, and Wolfgang Hatz, developer of Porsche’s winning Formula One engines, were among the engineers suspended in the investigation of the emissions cheating scandal that sank the company’s market value by 43% since Sept. 18 and triggered a world-wide recall to refit the engines to meet clear-air...

The Obama administration on Friday directed Volkswagen to recall nearly a half-million cars, saying the automaker illegally installed software in its diesel-power cars to evade standards for reducing smog. The Environmental Protection Agency accused the German automaker of using software to detect when the car is undergoing its periodic state emissions testing. Only during such tests are the cars’ full emissions control systems turned on. During normal driving situations, the controls are turned off, allowing the cars to spew as much as 40 times as much pollution as allowed under the Clean Air Act, the E.P.A. said. “We expected better...

FRANKFURT — Martin Winterkorn resigned as chief executive of Volkswagen Wednesday, taking responsibility for an emissions cheating scandal that has gravely damaged the carmaker’s reputation and may spread to the German economy. “As C.E.O. I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines,” Mr. Winterkorn, who had headed the company since 2007, said in a statement. But he continued to insist he personally committed no misconduct. “I am not aware of any wrong doing on my part.”

BERLIN— Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn resigned Wednesday in the wake of a developing emissions scandal that has stunned the auto industry and slashed the car maker’s market value. “Volkswagen needs a fresh start—also in terms of personnel,” Mr. Winterkorn said. “I am clearing the way for this fresh start with my resignation.” Mr. Winterkorn said that he accepted responsibility for the irregularities found in diesel engines and has asked the supervisory board to agree to his stepping down. He said, however, that he wasn't aware of any wrongdoing on his part.

There are so many minor stories that are embarrassing to liberals to blog about this afternoon, it’s hard to choose just one. Should I blog the fact that gutless Hillary Clinton waited for the Pope’s arrival to dump the news that she’s taking the predictable orthodox left-wing position on the Keystone Pipeline? Should I blog about left-wing writers being so stupid that they don’t realize the word “retarded” has a non-slur definition? Or should I blog the fact that America’s been planning the Pope’s visit for months and somehow Obama still couldn’t quite get to the airport on time? When...