California’s Clean Vehicle Authority Affirmed by Federal Court

WASHINGTON— A federal appeals court today upheld California’s longstanding waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which allows the state to set its own program of clean vehicle regulations. The court dismissed a suit brought by the oil and gas industry allied with corn ethanol and biodiesel growers and 17 Republican-led states. In March 2022 … Read more

IQAir releases world air quality report for 2023

STEINACH, Switzerland (March 19, 2024) – The 6th Annual World Air Quality Report reveals troubling details of the world’s most polluted countries, territories, and regions in 2023. For this year’s report, data from more than 30,000 air quality monitoring stations across 7,812 locations in 134 countries, territories, and regions were analyzed by IQAir’s air quality … Read more

Plan to offer new Calif. nighttime passenger-train op. gains traction. With such service, potential is there for air-quality improvement

Newport Beach, CA – March 23, 2024 – Dreamstar Lines, Inc., a pioneering company in deluxe passenger rail travel, is pleased to announce the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Union Pacific Railroad, one of North America’s premier transportation companies. The MOU, formalizing the parties’ negotiations toward a comprehensive final agreement, identifies the … Read more

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

Could AI be the answer to solving the congestion crisis?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 28, 2024 – The research paper, AI-generated visuals of car-free US cities help improve support for sustainable policies, published in Nature Sustainability combines insights from behavioral science with recent advances in AI. The study was led by Rachit Dubey, a postdoctoral research fellow at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in collaboration with Rahul Bhui, assistant … 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

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

Study shows bias in favor of preserving driving

The researchers from Swansea University and the University of the West of England commissioned an independent polling organisation to ask 2,157 people across the UK a series of questions. Randomly, each person got a set of questions that asked about driving cars or an identical set of questions with one or two words changed so … Read more

UMass Amherst Report: Immense job opportunities, workforce needs tied to federal infrastructure, climate, manufacturing investments

AMHERST, Mass. – A new report from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) examines labor supply, demand, and potential shortages from new U.S. clean energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure laws: the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act. The analysis was commissioned by the National Skills Coalition and … Read more