Legislation and Policy

For a multitude of reasons – climate change, air quality, national security, etc. – a large reduction in the burning of carbon-based fuels is a good idea. Since higher prices are known to reduce consumption, one way to achieve this is to simply put a tax on fuel at the pump. It's been ...

Michael Arbaugh, chief designer of Ford interiors, describes center console space as "oceanfront property" – already fully populated, with more tenants trying to move in every year. Speaking to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, Arbaugh said one tenant he'd like to evict is the CD ...

In a move sure to please urban-area gas station owners, the EPA has issued a waiver to its 1994 rule requiring gas pump vapor recovery systems. The devices were required in mostly urban areas to reduce smog-causing vapors from being released into the air during the refueling of vehicles. With ...

California may be the Golden State, but when it comes to the upcoming debuts of a number of battery-electric vehicles, prospective buyers may want to associate the most populous U.S. state with the color red. As in herring. That's the conclusion of Green Car Reports in its evaluation of a number ...

Oh, the gas tax, always a contentious issue. We've covered it throughout the years but now the Congressional Budget Office is reminding us that the time has come to move well beyond simple discussion and politics: the Highway Trust Fund is not getting enough money to pay for the transportation ...

For some drivers, ethanol-blended fuels such as E15 and E85 generate the same kind of confusion as stalactites and stalagmites do for high school geography students. Now, E15, which is fuel sold with a 15 percent blend of ethanol, is creating confusion all on its own. That's what the Minneapolis ...

Now here's something that will make fiscal conservatives feel warm and fuzzy. U.S. buyers of new electric-drive vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf battery-electric and Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug in were eligible for more than $150 million in federal and state incentives in 2011, or more ...

It may not be an electric-vehicle junkie's version of "War and Peace," but it's pretty close. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which last year formed its Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP) to accelerate electric-vehicle component standardization, last week released the ...

Imagine all of the cars and light-duty trucks in Washington and Oregon combined. Then imagine them all being either battery-electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. That's what Chinese leaders have in mind by the end of the decade. The China State Council is pushing for a combination of automotive ...

What, did you expect them to have a Yankees logo on it? Massachusetts' department of transportation this week said that special license plates with a silhouette of a green car with a plug on the back will be available for drivers of hybrids, battery-electric vehicles and plug-in ...