The Detroit News reports on a truce between the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an automaker trade group, and two advocates of more-stringent vehicle emissions regulations, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. After a series of public battles over stiffening regulations, including a May meeting where Schwarzenegger told auto executives to "stop whining" and meet new standards that should have gone into effect in 2002, the parties have all decided that a consumer-education Web site is the best way to curb fuel usage. Ah-nold's step-by-step instructions for saving the planet, after the jump.
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With temperatures edging into the triples across the sunshiny golden state, the Governator has declared a heat emergency. Mr. Freeze Schwarzenegger has ordered cooling centers for overheated citizens open in ten California counties. And even though Al Gore's kid is likely blasting the AC while traveling down Interstate 5 at 200 miles per hour, energy conservation has been officially recommended. [California Calls for Conservation via Reuters]
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A few years ago while we snacked during an early morning press conference at the LA Auto Show, Chevrolet announced that the State of California had made a deal with to purchase a heap of Flex Fuel vehicles for the fleet. Jay Leno cracked a couple jokes, and the guy from the Air Resources Board looked sweaty during the extended huzzahs and back slapping. The vehicles are now indeed in the fleet. The problem is that E85 fuel is still not available in California. Two state Senate hearings are set to investigate why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration spent taxpayer greenbacks on green vehicles which have yet to burn one drop of green fuel. Collective huzzahs have turned to political hrumphs.
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We would like to give our deepest condolences to everyone who lives within 50-miles of San Francisco, as their commute has just increased by at least an hour in each direction. Which means that Bay Area traffic worsens from its current level (about as bad as you can imagine) to Dante's third-concentric circle of Hell (that's where the sowers of discord and schism hang). A tanker truck crashed, its fuel load caught fire and the bridge on the Emeryville side simply melted. Amazingly, no one was killed. The Governator is on the scene and has already declared a state of emergency. The upside? All trains, buses and ferries are free for the next little while. The downside? It's not going to make one damn iota of difference traffic-wise. It should be noted that Bay Area-ites managed to soldier on without the Cypress Structure for eight-years after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. So, they'll be OK. Look for local residents/environmental whack jobs to tie up construction well into Kucinitch's second term. – Jonny LiebermanMore »
Even with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declaring that environmentalism in California is officially and henceforth to become hip and sexy, it's easy to forget that the very coolest motor going Californians have been messing around with alternative fuels with great success since the '50s. At the apex of California drag racing, hundreds of professional and homebuilt racecars descended onto quarter mile dragstrips every weekend and burned up some of the most exotic alternative fuels ever run through an internal combustion engine. Nitromethane was the featured alternative fuel of choice this last weekend at the California Speedway in Fontana. While the legendary SoCal drag strips have sadly moved into history, vintage drag racing soldiers on thanks to retroactive adherents to the Governor's new policy.
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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger played up the green image he's been cultivating during a speech yesterday at Georgetown University. The Austrian Oak remarked, "We don't have to go and take away the muscle cars. We don't have to take away Hummers or SUVs or anything like this, because that's a formula for failure," he said. "Instead we have to make those cars more environmentally muscular." So then, Governor Schwarzenegger, when can we have our 30-year rolling CARB exemption back? – Davey G. JohnsonMore »
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that California is now and will be the world leader in alternative fuel vehicles, or else. While automakers first balked or threatened to sue the sunshine state when it came making cars of the future, Arnold has evidently convinced the recalcitrant manufacturers to join him in his quest for thinking beyond gasoline and merging onto the road of tomorrow - a hydrogen highway he has in fact signed into executive order. Alternative fuel vehicles from BMW, GM, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla were revealed to great fanfare. The Governator assures us he not out to take the fun out of driving. Ahnold has test driven the super-electric Tesla. "It was hot", said Schwarzenegger. – Mike BumbeckMore »
Ahnuld is set to sign a ban that bans use of a cellular phone while driving unless one's using a hands-free device. Scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2008, the ban carries penalties of $20 for the first offense and $50 for each infraction thereafter. No word as to whether the Gov'll come by your house and do you like he did the T-X if you don't pay up. [Thanks to Bumbeck for the tip.]
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So we pulled out of San Pedro in the mid-afternoon to make sure we'd make it to Santa Monica Airport in time for the start of the Tesla Motors press intro. Rumors had flown back and forth as to whether or not the Tesla Roadster was simply a rebodied, rebadged Elise with an electric powertrain. The answer to that is slightly tricky — it is and it isn't. Click through for the full report.
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