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Who's forcing Marchionne and all the other major automakers to sell mostly money-losing electric vehicles? More than any other person, it's Mary Nichols. She's run the California Air Resources Board since 2007, championing the state's zero-emission-vehicle quotas and backing President Barack Obama's national mandate to double average fuel economy to 55 miles per gallon by 2025. She was chairman of the state air regulator once before, a generation ago, and cleaning up the famously smoggy Los Angeles skies is just one accomplishment in a four-decade career.
Nichols really does intend to force automakers to eventually sell nothing but electrics. In an interview in June at her agency's heavy-duty-truck laboratory in downtown Los Angeles, it becomes clear that Nichols, at age 70, is pushing regulations today that could by midcentury all but banish the internal combustion engine from California's famous highways. "If we're going to get our transportation system off petroleum," she says, "we've got to get people used to a zero-emissions world, not just a little-bit-better version of the world they have now."
We've seen campaigns to defend smoking and not wearing seatbelts and not getting vaccinated. Is this like that, or is there more to it?
(Score: 4, Funny) by zeigerpuppy on Tuesday August 04 2015, @12:49AM
While moving towards electric vehicles is one part of the solution to rampant CO2 emissions, there needs to be a realistic and coordinated approach.
1) the current vehicle fleet has huge amounts of embodied carbon as about half the emissions of a vehicle are in manufacture.
Therefore, retro-fitting electric motors to the current fleet is more efficient than building new vehicles, government subsidies would help in transitioning the fleet.
2) public transport will always be more efficient than moving a ton of metal for a single occupant. Therefore, vehicle taxes should be based on emissions per passenger and taxes fed directly into public transport improvements.
3) stop building roads (and airports)
4) town planning needs to factor in public transport to reduce travel requirements. Walking and cycling to work have benefits for health, public well-being and emissions.
5) electricity generation needs to move assertively to renewables (not nuclear). Large scale solar thermal and wind have sufficient power density and are becoming competitive with other sources.
6) remove subsidies on high-carbon industries an direct these to renewables.
No more coal co2 sequestration "trials". No more diesel fuel subsidies for heavy industry.
7) for remote locations, liquid ammonia fuel generated from surplus renewable energy can bridge the energy gap, until
8) the rollout of a next generation grid able to handle the larger power spikes inherent to larger power differentials.
9) shut down 60 year old nuclear plants and stop building fission plants, the government is subsidizing these hugely and te money would be better invested in renewable energy.
10) efficiency bonuses and alteration of traffic laws to improve access for electic buses, trams and trains in urban areas.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Tuesday August 04 2015, @06:50AM
Your points are mostly well taken, but I think you are way off on the idea of public transportation in American cities. The last time I visited the US, we (of course) rented a car. It was entirely normal for us to drive 30-45 minutes from my cousin's house to go, well, anywhere. To go out to eat, to go to the mall, heck, just to get to the grocery store.
Public transport can only work within densely packed urban areas, and for long-haul intercity travel. Otherwise, instead of moving one ton of metal (a car) per person, you find yourself moving 10 tons of metal (a bus) for 5 occupants. Or, worse, 50 tons of metal (a tram) for 10 occupants. If you ever want public transport to work in most American cities, you first have to convince Americans to aspire to living in an apartment in the city center, instead of in a McMansion. Until that mentality changes, it just ain't gonna work.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2015, @08:36AM
You're absolutely right that many cities have been set up with hopelessly sprawled infrastructure. I'm not sure there's much that can be done in the short term about that.
However, people do gravitate to well designed urban centers.
It's also possible that light, electric, self driving vehicles may provide a backup solution for the cities which are already poorly designed.