Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is expected on Wednesday to formally revoke California's legal authority to set tailpipe pollution rules that are stricter than federal rules, in a move designed by the White House to strike twin blows against both the liberal-leaning state that President Trump has long antagonized and the environmental legacy of President Barack Obama. The announcement that the White House will revoke one of California's signature environmental policies will come while Mr. Trump is traveling in the state, where he is scheduled to attend fund-raisers in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. The formal revocation of California's authority...

When it comes to environmental regulation compliance, the Department of Homeland Security isn’t playing — as evidenced by a recent federal raid of a South Carolinian’s home to confiscate a Land Rover that violated EPA emission rules. Jennifer Brinkley said she saw a line of law enforcement vehicles approaching her home and wondered what was wrong, the local WBTV reported. Homeland Security agents then went to her 1985 Land Rover Defender and lifted the hood. “They popped up the hood and looked at the Vehicle Identification Number and compared it with a piece of paper and then took the car...

A German proposal circulated on the fringes of the EU Competitiveness Council on 27 September calls for phasing-in the EU’s 95 grams of CO2 per km (g/km) fuel efficiency standard for passenger cars over a four-year period ending in 2024. The proposal, which has been confirmed to EurActiv by several diplomats, would apply the standard to 80% of national fleets in 2020, with a 5% increase in each of the following years, reaching 100% in 2024. The green think tank Transport and Environment estimates that the scaling down of ambition would lead to an emissions standard of 104g/km in 2020,...

The White House is planning to unveil a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency that aims to clean up gasoline and automobile emissions, a plan officials say will lead to cleaner air but also higher gas prices. The so-called Tier 3 standards would reduce sulfur in gasoline by more than 60 percent and reduce nitrogen oxides by 80 percent, by expanding across the country a standard already in place in California. It would go into effect in 2017. The oil industry, Republicans and some Democrats have pressed the EPA to delay the rule, saying it would be unwise to impose...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reducing sulfur in gasoline and tightening emissions standards on cars beginning in 2017, as the Obama administration is proposing, would come with costs as well as rewards. The cost at the pump for cleaner air across the country could be less than a penny or as high as 9 cents a gallon, depending on who is providing the estimate. An oil industry study says the proposed rule being unveiled Friday by the administration could increase gasoline prices by 6 cents to 9 cents a gallon. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates an increase of less than a penny...

ANNAPOLIS -- From the soap used to wash dishes to the cars driven to work, Marylanders will feel large and small effects from the recent legislative session some have called the most environmental in years. Democrats this year celebrated their stronger grip on state government and their return to the governor's mansion with a spate of earth-friendly bills that became the dominant theme of the session. Lawmakers tightened emissions standards on new cars. They slashed the amount of water-polluting phosphorus allowed in dishwashing detergent. They ended the commercial harvest of diamondback terrapins and set new goals for solar energy. Oysters...

The state Environmental Quality Board, Sept. 19, quietly amended the Clean Vehicles Program to make Pennsylvania beholden to California standards. This is expected to increase the cost of a car or light truck sold in this state by $3,000. Should Pennsylvania follow California standards. Yes No

Is the predicted $3,000 cost increase for cars too high a price to pay to have Pennsylvania meet California Emissions Standards. Yes, California is not a role model for anything. No, $3,000 is chump change. I can afford it, and if you can’t, you should be walking.

Marie Antoinette would be proud. In the midst of a Saturday night squabble over the budget, the California Legislature passed a bill that could add $3,500 to the cost of an SUV, and pave the way for mile-per-gallon pollution standards. No other state, and not even the federal government, has seen fit to stick its nose in the taxpayers’ tailpipes. But then no other state has judges that outlawed the Pledge of Allegiance. What’s next, a ban on apple pie? HYPOCRISY doesn’t begin to describe the dirty deeds of the gashouse emissions gang from Sacramento. They’re circling the wagons at...

Lawmakers are willing to give motorcycles a pass from the state's mandatory emissions test if they're proven not to foul up the air. But state records show that 26 percent of the motorcycles taking the test in 2000 failed while cars flunked at the rate of 16 percent. Motorcyclists and state Rep. Dean Cooley, R-Mesa, argue that those figures come from an idle test that is not a good gauge of motorcycle performance, which is why they want a separate study on the issue. Years ago, lawmakers exempted cars from the emissions test in the first five years of operation,...

A deal that was supposed to offer cleaner air through tougher auto emissions tests has become a "mammoth boondoggle" that will cost New Jersey taxpayers millions of dollars more than earlier estimates, a new state report says. The report, released Wednesday, claims the process that awarded the contract to test car emissions benefited politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats and the corporation that was the sole bidder for the work. "The investigation revealed an ill-conceived state process undermined by mismanagement from within and tainted by manipulation from without," the State Commission of Investigation report said. The computerized vehicle emissions test system will have...