The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it lacks authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from motor vehicles.

Could having Arnold as the governer of California slow down some of the tough emissions regulations?

In this article from 1980, Joseph Kraft investigates the American auto industry’s move toward building smaller cars after the energy crisis in the nineteen-seventies, and the surprising role that the government played.

In case you missed this (press coverage) and this. What these two studies show is that we need to be more realistic of what sort of emission reductions the fuel cell vehicles can deliver. The need to take a well to wheels (or the complete life cycle) can not be overemphasized.

Here is the backgrounder on the form of standard that CARB is considering to implement AB 1493. My attention was drawn to the grams per mile of of CO2. Keep in mind that combustion of a gallon of gasoline is equivalent to producing roughly 20 pounds of CO2. So, a 200 grams/mile of CO2 is roughly equivalent to 0.5 pounds/mile or a fuel economy of 40 miles per gallon.

An audio link of the GBN WorldView webconference featuring Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall of GBN, Mark Gainsborough of WBCSD, and Alan Lloyd of CARB was held in April following the publication of a GBN article "How can Hydrogen Economy Save America ?" It's not the best of the audio transcript, but yet it's interesting to listen to the scenarios.

"Get the H2 to Church on Time" -- Use of Strech Hummers instead of Limos!

California Energy Commission and the Air Resources Board have finally adopted the AB 2076 report. Even though, the entire excercise has been impressive, I think that the final recommendations are quite lame. Given that AB 1493 prohibits New fees or taxes on vehicles, fuel or miles traveled, a limitation or reduction in the speed limit or a limitation or reduction in vehicle miles traveled, the state had few options left.

While I have been away and not paying any attention, the senate made another lame effort to take the question of fuel economy seriously.

Carmakers have dropped the lawsuits against CARB and it's ZEV program. NYT story is here.

DaimlerChrysler says it has built a diesel engine that meets the strict emissions levels that take effect in 2007. Toyota and VW have already demonstrated such engines. See the Automotive News report:

I just thought that it would be fun to assemble the links of all the Anti-SUV links.

Starting with the Sierra Club web site: http://www.hummerdinger.com/

or simply enjoy the movie: http://sierraclubmedia.net/flash/h2revise.html

However, Hummers are only an very small part of the problem. Some people think
that SUVs are the bigger problem:

Arrianne Huffington's "The Detroit Project".

http://www.idontcareaboutair.com/humour/index.shtml

Some people appeal to the religious sentiments to make a decision:

What would Jesus Drive?

or directly view the ad here.

More links:

http://www.changingtheclimate.com/video.html

http://www.gaspig.com/

Research shows that Public Information campaigns can have a significant effect on customer demand. Clearly, there is no lack of available media resources.
However, do you think that "anti-SUV/Hummer" or similar campaigns have a value? Is there a better way to address the general public?