Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

Automaker lawsuit against Rhode Island can go forward, and more vehicle news

Posted at 2:14 PM on 02 Jan 2008

If news of states suing the EPA merely whets your appetite for vehicle-emissions news, here's more: Firstly, a federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit from automakers seeking to prevent Rhode Island from regulating vehicle emissions can go forward. Rhode Island officials are left wondering how their situation is different from a very similar lawsuit in Vermont, which was rejected by a federal judge in September. Secondly, DaimlerChrysler paid a record $30 million fine last year for failing to meet the U.S. government's unambitious fuel-efficiency standards. Thirdly, three German cities, including the capital Berlin, have kickstarted a program aimed at prohibiting high-polluting vehicles from their city centers. And finally, Beijing has introduced cleaner fuel standards in a further attempt to clear its air before the August Olympics. And that's it -- until there's more.

sources: The Providence Journal, Bloomberg News Service, BBC News, Xinhua

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Comments: (5 comments)

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Show Us Your TaTa's

TaTa motors is building a car for $2500 that gets 58 mpg.

Tata's 2,500-dollar compact car to be light and fuel efficient

New Delhi - India's Tata Motors said that its 2,530-dollar automobile, expected to roll off assembly lines by mid-2008, will get 25 kilometres per litre of petrol and be light on its tyres by using more plastic and less bolts, news reports said Wednesday.

[25 kilometers per liter = 58.8036461 miles per gallon]

Of course, that means they have to raise the price of gas to $10 so they'll make the same profit per car.

Right guys?

by jabailo at 9:46 PM on 02 Jan 2008

A hearty thank you.

Mr. Bailo, I just want to say, thank you for taking the initiative to do the work this publication was neglecting to do. I'll be honest, I wasn't ambitious enough to do it myself, but I was just thinking, "I wish someone at Grist would post about the TaTa car."

For more information about this exciting and incredibly environmentally benevolent piece of news, go here.

by Pathos at 12:30 AM on 03 Jan 2008

BMW too?

I've heard that luxury automakers sometimes take the decision to pay the CAFE penalty and not care. It is cheap for them (few units but high margin) and their customers have not shown interest in the issue.

by odograph at 5:45 AM on 03 Jan 2008

Make The Link

Yes, well, but the point is that that one Grist Hand doesn't know that the other Grist Hand is doing. They decry industry for doing X and then praise it for doing Y -- when Y makes X ok.

by jabailo at 8:46 AM on 03 Jan 2008

That's right...

Play it off, J.B. No one will notice.

No, I mean it, they really won't. :)

by Pathos at 8:58 PM on 03 Jan 2008

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?