European parliament scales back CO2 emissions limits
It looks like European automakers are winning their battle against the proposed European Union limits on automotive CO2 emissions. While the European Commission had proposed a limit of 120 g/km for the vehicle fleet by 2012, manufacturers where claiming the limit was too aggressive. The members of parliament apparently agreed, with the Industry and Energy Committee voting 35-21 to slow things down. Instead of having the entire fleet meet the requirement, only 60 percent of vehicles will have to pass the new threshold in 2012. Over the next several years, through 2015, the rest of the vehicles will meet the standard as well. Extremely low emission vehicles with less than 50 g/km of CO2 will also be given extra credit counting as 1.5 vehicles in the sales weighted averaging. All electric vehicles will count as three cars until 2015. In a further move sure to make environmentalists apoplectic, the fines for exceeding the limits were slashed from the EC's proposed €95 per gram of CO2 over the limit to €40 per gram.
[Source: Euractiv.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SteveCT 3:31PM (9/02/2008)
*Sigh* Even when the EU capitulates, it's still vastly more strict than here in the US. I was surprised to hear that it was still such a strong regulation, but I guess I'm used to the Bush Administration's tendency to flat-out refuse to regulate anything.
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Karl-Uwe Strunzen 3:58PM (9/02/2008)
Already in 2007 the extremely powerful German mafia groups managed to get their way in Bruxelles. This only shows just how pointless something like the European Union really is while countries such as Germany are members.
More importantly the effect that this will have is very limited. No matter what the Germans manage to do in Bruxelles, they have already lost this battle:
http://www.acea.be/images/uploads/files/20080302_CO%202%20tax%20overview.pdf
Germany is already isolated from the rest of Europe on this issue (11 countries so far) and soon this isolation will be complete.
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radler63 1:42AM (9/03/2008)
simply not true - the parliament has not decided yet - this is only a proposal of a working group
http://www.sugre.info
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Scatter 5:16PM (9/02/2008)
Pathetic. Our so called leaders have their fingers in their ears and are going lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala
oh and someone's even illustrated it nicely...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00179/eu1_179484a.jpg
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Arnold Schneider 6:45PM (9/02/2008)
I see the good side: That is an increased pressure to produce electric and very low emission cars. Making thirsty cars a little bit less thirsty is not solving the problem. We have to go electric and not get 30% less addicted to oil. So this is an even better regulation as I see it.
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Scatter 5:44AM (9/03/2008)
I agree that electrification is the way forwards but EVs will take a long time to penetrate the market and in the meantime we have the twin pressures of climate change and peak oil to deal with.
Our transport systems are one of the main causes of both problems and we need to bring fossil fuel consumption down fast.
Karl-Uwe Strunzen 11:25PM (9/02/2008)
Efficient vehicles (combustion) can also help in the drive for EVs. These will necessarily be lighter in order to have better performance, and the compacts with lower consumption are precisely that: lightwight compacts. The 2 real-world EV models soon to be available in Europe - the Mitsubushi iMiev and the Franco-Italian Pininfarina-Bollore EV - are also lightweight compacts....
Effcient small cars (conventional and CNG) may well be the transition we need to go to EVs. The only thing that may slow this process down (certainly not stop it) are the powerful German mafia groups.
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SimonSays 2:01PM (9/04/2008)
You can still make your voice heard via http://www.forlesspollutingcars.com
Click on 'Let’s Act' tab and then on the right hand side, add your details, and click send to send your message to one or more Euro MPs. Or you can download a sample text and post off a real letter too.
You can find versions of the site in other European languages too...
Also, if you are on Facebook – why not join this group?
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31789502243&ref=mf
This has two effects. It adds you to the group and alerts others in your network AND gives you the direct opportunity to invite others too (tick the boxes and hit go!)
Thank you for your support if you can lend it!
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