[Source: California Center for Jobs and the Economy] The latest new vehicle sales data from California New Car Dealers Association shows that, as expected, the above-trend ZEV sales in Q4 2017 were likely consumer responses to the potential sunset of related federal subsidies. The Q1 sales of true ZEVs (battery and fuel cell vehicles) were Read More…
Newsroom
California’s Brown pegs bullet train future to Democratic wave
[Source: Bloomberg] California’s $77 billion high-speed rail project, which has been dogged by cost overruns and delays, could receive much-needed federal funding if Democrats take control of Congress in November, Governor Jerry Brown said Wednesday. “When the Congress shifts” and lawmakers draft an infrastructure bill, Brown said he is optimistic they will provide $6 billion 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…
Trump has an auto emissions plan, but this negotiator calls it ‘crap’
[Source: Bloomberg] Mary Nichols was in classic blunt mode last week, calling the latest Trump administration’s challenge to Obama-era auto-emission targets “a piece of crap” and dismissing as “nonsense” the industry claims that fighting pollution costs too much. “Give me a break,” Nichols said ahead of a California Air Resources Board symposium in the Los Angeles suburb Read More…
OSU-designed wristbands detect environmental pollutants
[Source: KTVZ.COM news sources] Chemical-sampling wristbands made of silicone are already known as an easy-to-use method of measuring a person’s exposure to environmental pollutants. Invented at Oregon State University, the colorful wristbands absorb chemicals from the air and skin. A new OSU study shows that the wristbands are also very good at linking external chemical exposure—the Read More…
Supreme Court rules employers can ban class action lawsuits in arbitration
[Source: POLITICO] The Supreme Court, dealing a potential blow to the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, ruled that employers can require as a condition of employment that workers waive their rights to participate in class action lawsuits. In a 5-4 ruling on a trio of cases penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court’s Republican majority Read More…
Legislatures kill transparency pricing at the pump
[Source: Fox & Hounds] Californians now pay as much as $1.00 more per gallon of fuel than the rest of the country. Shouldn’t the motoring public know why? A bill in the California Legislature to do just that was Senate Bill 1074, by state Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa. Called “Disclosure of government-imposed costs,” it Read More…
The bullet train is California’s biggest infrastructure project — but it’s seldom discussed in governor’s race
[Source: Los Angeles Times] It’s the biggest infrastructure project in state history, but the California bullet train gets hardly any attention on the campaign trail. The leading candidates for governor have said little publicly about how they would fix dire problems in the $77-billion mega-project that has already overrun its initial cost estimate by $44 Read More…