Anger in California’s carpool lanes as more than 200,000 drivers are set to lose decals

[Source: Los Angeles Times] For some California commuters, cutting down on carbon emissions isn’t a sexy enough reason to buy an electric car. But the ability to bypass freeway traffic without having to carpool — that’s another story. So there is grumbling in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes across California these days. On Jan. 1, the owners of Read More…

Neighbors in Hacienda Heights concerned over lead-smelting plant expansion plans leave meeting frustrated

[Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune] More than 150 people attended a chaotic meeting Thursday night to hear about plans for a 25 percent increase in the recycling of toxic lead batteries at Quemetco’s facility in City of Industry, the lone lead-smelting plant remaining in Southern California. Many were frustrated over a workshop format chosen by Read More…

Electric trucks facing long road to unseat diesel engines

[Source: Bloomberg] The next battleground for replacing fossil fuel-guzzling vehicles will be U.S. interstate highways, where long-haul trucks keep the economy moving. Electric trucks are coming, and they’ll be cleaner and cheaper to operate than conventional models that burn diesel, according to Tesla Inc., which already has prototypes on the road. Diesel advocates say range Read More…

California’s Brown to Trump: see us in court

[Source: Bloomberg] The legal battle over California’s nation-leading auto emissions standards, which U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has threatened to dismantle, may continue throughout President Donald Trump’s tenure in office, Governor Jerry Brown said. Brown, who filed suit against the EPA with more than a dozen other states to preserve the tailpipe emissions Read More…

California air-quality official takes a swipe at Trump

[Source: Bloomberg News] California’s top air-quality official disputed the Trump administration’s description of a meeting about the future of fuel economy standards, suggesting it was actually a dud. “Sounds like a great meeting based on the WH press release. Too bad it’s not the one we attended,” Mary Nichols, the chair of the state’s Air Resources Board, tweeted Thursday, Read More…

The public deserves transparency of pricing at the pump

[Ronald Stein, PTS Staffing Solutions] Fuel prices in California are among the highest in the country, as a result of some of the highest taxes in the country, plus the costs associated with compliance with various State environmental laws, which trickle down to the consumer, resulting in Californian’s paying as much as $1 more per Read More…