Rome joins European ban-diesel bandwagon after German court ruling

Chrome exhaust pipeFirst Paris, then a pair of German cities, and now the Eternal City. Two weeks ago, the mayor of Rome announced on her Facebook page that the city would ban diesel cars altogether by 2024. It's not clear whether the ban applies solely to the older, most-polluting diesels as it does already in Paris, or to any vehicle with a diesel engine. CHECK...

China is serious on fuel economy: 500-plus models to go out of production

2016 BYD Tang plug-in hybrid SUV, made in ChinaChina has taken a major step toward cleaning up the new cars sold in the country beginning January 1. As numerous countries debate plans to end sales of fossil-fuel vehicles completely at points in the future, China has now forced the end of production for some 553 models, starting Monday. The vehicles, from a wide range of automakers, can no...

Trump EPA: less enforcement of laws, more leeway for polluters

Donald TrumpIn grade school, students commonly ran through the halls when teachers or other school staff weren't looking. Signs forbidding the act of sprinting past lockers did little to deter the practice, since there was no incentive not to run unless someone present was enforcing the rule. The same can be said for industrial polluters and environmental-law...

China wants all electric cars: will it work? Reasons and reactions

BYD e6 electric taxi in service in Shenzhen, ChinaIt was quaint and adorable when Norway did it, saying it would end sales of cars with internal-combustion engines by 2025. The Netherlands followed suit, with little fanfare. More recently, France and the U.K. have enacted various forms of bans on non-electrified vehicles, on varying schedules. Now that China has said it's considering timetables...

China wants all electric cars: will it work? Reasons and reactions

BYD e6 electric taxi in service in Shenzhen, ChinaIt was quaint and adorable when Norway did it, saying it would end sales of cars with internal-combustion engines by 2025. The Netherlands followed suit, with little fanfare. More recently, France and the U.K. have enacted various forms of bans on non-electrified vehicles, on varying schedules. Now that China has said it's considering timetables...