Cars
Obama Administration Working on Its Own Six-Year Transportation Bill
The annual powwow of thousands of transportation workers, planners, and wonks that's known as the Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference kicked off in the capital yesterday with a candid admission from some senior U.S. DOT officials: reorienting American transport planning to accommodate the overlap with housing and environmental sustainability is proving pretty difficult.
January 11, 2010
Transport Economist Challenges Claim That ‘VMT Causes Growth’
The claim to a link between economic growth and vehicle mileage -- that, in other words, auto travel is essential to keeping U.S. productivity high -- remains controversial and much-debated in transportation policy circles.
January 7, 2010
New Report Finds American Auto Fleet Shrinking
Could the nation be turning away from its decades-old yen for auto ownership? Americans got rid of more cars than they retained in 2009, reversing a trend that saw total U.S. vehicles exceed the number of drivers more than 35 years ago, according to a report released today by the Earth Policy Institute (EPI).
January 6, 2010
Grassley Looking Into Citibank’s Million-Dollar ‘Clunkers’ Deal
Chuck Grassley (IA), the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, today asked the U.S. DOT to answer a question Streetsblog Capitol Hill first wondered about months ago: How did Citibank, the beleaguered recipient of a $45 billion government bailout, snag a contract to administer the Obama administration's "cash for clunkers" program?
January 5, 2010
A Step Towards Pricing of Pollution? 11 States Back Low-Carbon Fuel Rules
While many in Washington spent their holiday breaks wondering if Senate Democratic opposition would deal a major blow to progress on a climate change bill, 11 northeastern governors were agreeing on a deal that suggests otherwise.
January 4, 2010
How Car Dealers Wiggled Out of the Democrats’ Consumer Protection Bill
Auto loans and leases account for a major chunk of the U.S. financial market -- one nonpartisan research group recently pegged American car debt at $850 billion, larger than the entire credit-card industry. So perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that car dealers' lobbied themselves an exemption from the new consumer watchdog included in the House financial reform bill that cleared the House earlier this month.
December 30, 2009
EPA Makes it Official: Emissions Threaten Public Health
Acting under a Supreme Court mandate, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled today that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and contribute to the harmful environmental effects of climate change, paving the way for pollution regulations under the Clean Air Act.
December 7, 2009
LaHood: Gas Tax Increase in Congressional Hands
As Congress maneuvers to end the political impasse over the next long-term national transportation bill, lawmakers are going to have to debate an increase in the federal gas tax, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today.
November 30, 2009
Consumer Group: White House Left Fuel-Efficiency Savings on the Table
The Obama administration's proposal to raise auto fuel-efficiency (CAFE) standards to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 could have gone even further in order to reap the maximum environmental and economic benefits of cleaner cars, according to a new analysis [PDF] released today by the Consumer Federation of America.
November 24, 2009
Higher Gas Prices Alone Won’t Make Cleaner Cars a Reality
It's a storyline that the media and the auto industry have embraced: Higher gas prices are the magic ingredient that U.S. carmakers need in order to sell more fuel-efficient vehicles to consumers.
November 20, 2009