Clean Power Plan carbon cuts may survive, even if Trump EPA kills rule

Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TennesseeThe Clean Power Plan’s future looks uncertain at best under President Donald Trump. The commander-in-chief appears to be urging American utility companies to pivot back towards burning coal to produce electricity. Ending the so-called “war on coal” is intended to create jobs in the mining sector, at the expense of the...

Trump budget slashes EPA emission testing, hits makers with higher fees

2017 Ford F-150 Raptor strapped to a dynoThe prospect of ongoing operations as usual continues to darken for the Environmental Protection Agency. According to a detailed internal budget document published in the The Washington Post, the Trump administration wants to eliminate virtually all federal funding for the agency’s vehicle emissions and fuel-economy testing budgets. If the...

Tesla loses bid to sell cars in Utah, dealer lobbyists win

Tesla Store Los Angeles [photo: Misha Bruk / MBH Architects]Tesla has once again been denied permission to sell its cars directly to buyers in the battleground state of Utah. Via a unanimous decision, the Utah Supreme Court handed Tesla Motors another setback this week. The state’s top court upheld a 2015 decision that denied the electric-car maker a license to sell new cars, citing a state law that...

Green groups gird for battle with White House: is it ‘war’?

The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]Last Wednesday, a broad coalition of environmental groups sued the Trump Administration over an executive order that lifted a moratorium on issuing new leases for coal mining on federal lands. That order would have eliminated the requirement for an environmental impact study on the impacts of any form of coal extraction across a wide swath of...

Large corporations, manufacturers stick with climate pledges despite Trump

Walmart store sign (via Wikimedia)The new U.S. president, Donald Trump, is working to eradicate every Obama policy to limit the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Having variously called the science behind climate change a "Chinese plot" to hurt the U.S. and referred to it using an expletive for bovine excrement, this shouldn't come as a surprise. He pledged to do...

Trump’s climate-change order: now what happens?

The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]These do not appear to be the best of times for President Donald J. Trump, but his agenda of eliminating regulations and promoting fossil fuels continues to roll out. This week, Trump appeared at the EPA to sign an executive order that directed the agency to reopen and reassess its Clean Power Plan for reducing carbon emissions from generating...

Trump Administration goal: undo every climate-change effort

Donald TrumpIt was clear well before November's election that candidate Donald Trump did not believe in the accepted science of climate change. He referred to it using an excremental epithet, and also claimed that it was a Chinese hoax created to hurt the U.S. Scientists around the world and the majority of Americans accept the science of climate change, but...

CARB reaffirms state emission, electric-car rules for 2025

California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols (via Twitter)The California Air Resources Board voted Friday to confirm its stricter emissions standards for 2025, setting up a potential clash with the Trump Administration. The CARB vote reaffirms a decision by the EPA in the waning days of the Obama Administration to lock in emissions standards for vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025. Under Trump, the...

Bipartisan governors’ group urges Trump to back solar, wind power

wind farmThe new presidential administration seems poised to take a radically different approach to energy policy than its predecessor. That approach is founded on denial of accepted climate science, and an expressed desire to promote the fossil-fuel industry, including the so-called revival of coal. But while the White House prepares to execute what looks...

5 electric-car questions to worry about this year

2017 Nissan Leaf  It seems fair to say that the new presidential administration may have increased the generalized level of worry among many Americans, not to mention the rest of the world. Among the things to worry about are the future of incentives, infrastructure, and legislation encouraging the adoption of zero-emission vehicles, primarily electric cars. These...