The EPA’s gas mileage testing standards don’t work. At all
POSTED AT 8:01 AM ON JULY 20, 2016 BY JAZZ SHAW
If you’re interested in having a vehicle which is more stingy with gasoline, there’s some good news out this week. There’s also some terrible news. If that leaves you feeling a bit confused, don’t feel too bad because the reports coming out of the government can be more than a little bewildering. For one example which came out on Monday, the EPA said they were on track to meet the goals announced by the Obama administration in 2012. These CAFE standards call for auto manufacturers to produce fleets of vehicles which average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Of course, that’s an average. If you produce some gas guzzling trucks, you’ll also need to sell hybrids to make up the difference.
But inside the same report, the EPA hedged their bets, saying that cheap gas will likely prompt more consumers to purchase bigger, less fuel efficient cars. And on top of that, the mileage standard really isn’t 54.5 miles per gallon anyway. (News 3 Las Vegas)
The U.S. government says the nation’s cars and trucks are well on their way to meeting fuel economy and emissions standards set for 2025, but cheaper gas prices could ultimately lower those targets by encouraging consumers to buy less-efficient vehicles…
Under standards set in 2012, automakers’ fleets were expected to get an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. That’s not the real-world mileage vehicles will get; it includes credits for things like more efficient air conditioning systems. The real-world mileage is closer to 40 miles per gallon.
Okay… so it’s not really 54.5 mpg, but actually more like 40. But that’s still not too bad, right? Heck, when I was growing up, 20 mpg was closer to the norm. But is it really 40 mpg? It turns out that we have no idea because the testing standards that the EPA uses to determine fuel efficiency don’t work. The actual mileage of the vehicles can’t be determined using the tests which the agency mandates. A new report in Wired Magazine explains that the methods in place were established in the 1970s and they don’t approach real world standards.
…Even if the car companies do, they don’t. Or at least, no one has any way to know if they do. Because the EPA’s test to make sure automakers are
Fuel efficient cars may be churning out MORE pollutants than previously thought
Could more fuel-efficient engines lead to more global warming?
Could more fuel-efficient engines lead to more global warming?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/07/13/could-more-fuel-efficient-engines-lead-to-more-global-warming
From the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Auto industry experts predict that more than 50 percent of cars on the road by 2020 will use a relatively new type of fuel-efficient engine. This transition, however, has raised questions about its ultimate effect on the climate. A study published in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology has found that […]
— gReader Pro…
Obama Scolds Drivers of ‘Gas-Guzzlers’ During Remarks in Canada
http://freebeacon.com/issues/obama-scolds-drivers-gas-guzzlers-clean-energy/…
Leonardo DiCaprio To Jet Off to Vineyard in St. Tropez, France For His Foundation’s Annual Gala to Fund Climate Projects
http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/27/ldf-gala/
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation announced today its third annual gala at the Domaine Bertaud Belieu vineyard in St. Tropez, France on July 20. The major charity event raises funds to protect Earth’s last wild place, implement solutions that restore balance to threatened ecosystems and ensure the long-term health and wellbeing of all its inhabitants.
attends a Dinner and Auction during The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation 2nd Annual Saint-Tropez Gala at Domaine Bertaud Belieu on July 22, 2015 in Saint-Tropez, France.
Last year’s gala at Domaine Bertaud Belieu on July 22, 2015 in Saint-Tropez, France raised $40 million for environmental causes. Photo credit: The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
This year’s occasion will be co-hosted by the Oscar-winning actor and noted environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, the foundation’s global chair Milutin Gatsby and chief executive officer Terry Tamminen.
Event chairs…
Obama brings massive carbon footprint for his visit to Yosemite to hector us over ‘global warming’
…Study: ‘Climate scientists are more credible when they practice what they preach’
Study: ‘Climate scientists are more credible when they practice what they preach’ – but my aerial surveys show many don’t
From the “arch denier Watts leads the way” department (see my photos below) I thought it would be interesting to see how many climate scientists actually have solar power on their home, so I did an aerial survey to find out. The results don’t speak well for them. Don’t worry, I did not disclose anyone’s […]
— gReader Pro…
DiCaprio’s Syndrome: Survey Initiated By Munich Greens Show They’re The Biggest Abusers Of Airline Travel!
…Leo DiCaprio isn’t the only climate change hypocrite
Here, in no particular order, is an incomplete list of warming hypocrites and do-gooders, which might be redundant:
- Mark Ruffalo — “But it’s my kids, man,” Ruffalo, 48, said. “I look at my kids, and the thought [of] mass extinction, and I see the change that’s happening with the trees . . .” The guy who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in 2015’s overrated “Spotlight’’ (but lost), and plays The Hulk/Dr. Bruce Banner in fuel-munching “The Avengers’’ movies, is perhaps the loudest whiner in a celeb-choked pack of environmental zealots — Sean Penn! Robert Redford! The fracking opponent vowed in 2014 to dump his investments in companies he says cause climate change — in three to five years. What’s the hurry?
- President Obama — The Golf-Nut-in-Chief, 54, called reducing greenhouse gases a “powerful rebuke’’ to ISIS (or, as he calls the terror-mongering group, ISIL) before flying aboard Air Force One to the United Nations climate summit outside Paris last year, joining many jet-setting representatives from 195 countries who agreed to lower emissions. According to the most recent estimates, it costs more than $200,000 for an hour of Air Force One flight time. Some or most of that is borne by taxpayers, including to pay for the first family’s vacation jaunts to Hawaii and the prez’s 2013 taping of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’’ in California. The France trip alone was estimated to leave nearly 100 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. After his presidency ends on Jan. 20, 2017, Obama is set to move with his family from the White House into a Washington, DC, leased mansion that measures 8,200 square feet and boasts nine bedrooms and 8½ bathrooms, Politico reports. I hope the Obamas remember to switch off the lights when changing rooms.
- Fifty shades of mind control. School board members in Portland, Ore., last week voted unanimously to ban from classrooms books and materials that cast doubt on the existence of climate change. A Los Angeles Times editor banned publishing the views of climate-change “deniers’’ in the newspaper’s Letters to the Editor section, outdoing even warming hysterics at the New York Times.
- Pope Francis — I’m not one to criticize the rock-star leader of the world’s estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. Suffice it to say that the pontiff, 79, has eclipsed the Bozo of Ozone, former US Vice President Al Gore,
Al Gore: Trump’s position on climate change ‘should concern everyone’ – Gore claims he’s green: ‘I do walk the talk’
“I’m not Pollyanna-ish, but I do think that there is still some basis for hope.”
Trump has called climate change a hoax created by China.
“President [Jimmy] Carter said that he hopes [Trump] will be malleable, so I don’t know,” Gore said before laughing.
Gore called the tone of the presidential campaign in which Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee “unusual.”
“I’m one of the millions who sometimes just does a double take: ‘Whoa, what was that?”’ Gore said.
…