Climate disruption

New heavy-duty vehicle standards will make for cleaner truck transport, improve air quality, fight climate change, keep U.S. economy humming

WASHINGTON – Today, March 29, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced final national greenhouse gas pollution standards for heavy-duty vehicles, such as freight trucks and buses, for model years 2027 through 2032. The standards will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and provide $13 billion in annualized net benefits to society related to … Read more

Will the MTA board’s multi-$B congestion-pricing scheme vastly improve NYC air quality?

The New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) board apparently felt that traffic congestion in the Big Apple is a big deal — that there is just too much of it. The MTA board approved a $15-per-day fee imposed on drivers making weekday drives into the city’s central business district or CBD (below 60th Street) also … Read more

New automobile standards to make for cleaner car travel, improve air quality, protect public health, fight climate change

WASHINGTON – Today, March 20, [2024], the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced final national pollution standards for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027 through 2032 and beyond. These standards will avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon emissions and provide nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society, … Read more

In 2023, climate-change indicators reached new heights, WMO reports

A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows that records were once again broken, and in some cases smashed, for greenhouse gas levels, surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice cover and glacier retreat. Heatwaves, floods, droughts, wildfires and rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones caused misery and mayhem, upending … Read more

Also being said re California’s emissions-reduction effort?

There is no doubt in my mind that times have changed. Life has emerged from the pandemic business as usual, I’m afraid. Okay, so where exactly am I going with this? To provide perspective, let’s look at just one piece of the entire worldwide greenhouse-gas-emissions-reduction picture, or dare I say, puzzle: California. On this very … Read more

Clean mobility community, school projects across California receive $33M from state air board

SACRAMENTO – The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently awarded $33 million in grants to support projects that increase access to zero-emissions transportation and diversify mobility options for schools and communities that service more than 20 low-income areas, including a new effort that empowers communities with resources to plan for future transportation projects. The programs, … Read more

New report finds marked Canadian CO2 reductions possible by upping transit-ridership levels by 2X

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – A new report, titled “Putting Wheels on the Bus” from Environmental Defence and Équiterre, supported by modelling conducted by Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors and Leading Mobility finds that Canada can double public transit ridership by 2035 if federal and provincial governments step up … Read more

2023’s traffic-volume trends are in!

It was on Mar. 15, 2023 that I posted: “U.S. driving miles up. VMT still lag pre-pandemic totals: Report.” In that post, covered were things like comparing 2022’s to 2021’s aggregate driving totals, per-capita driving for the same two years, per-motorist driving totals as well as calculation of the amount of carbon dioxide released into … Read more

The 411 on dialog exchange and tackling climate change

Who doesn’t enjoy a healthy exchange?! Well, I had one of those just the other day. It was over several days, actually. The topics of the cordial-while-respectful sharing of ideas were advocacy and activism. I never thought there would be so much to talk about having to do with this particular conversation subject matter. You’d … Read more