Provided you have "otherwise healthy habits," Scott Fruin reckons the ultra-fine particulates you inhale during your daily commute are the worst injury your body experiences on a daily basis. The assistant professor of environmental health at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) conducted a "Marco! Polo!" study of those pesky little toxic molecules that can penetrate your cell walls and disperse throughout your body. Ward's reports that the USC team jumped into a camera-equipped electric vehicle and simulated an LA commute, monitoring air quality. "In the 1.5 hours average drivers spend in their cars every day, they are exposed to 33%-45% of the harmful air pollution they breathe in," Fruin reveals. “Shortening your commute and spending less time in the car will significantly reduce your total body burden of harmful pollutants.” (Not to mention the stress of trying to get around slow-moving, taxpayer-funded EVs.) “The extent that (diesel trucks) dominated the highest concentration conditions on freeways was unexpected." But not unwelcome– at least from a legislative point-of-view. Fruin's anti-fine particle stance lines-up nicely with California's campaign to clean-up tailpipe pollutants from the diesel trucks plying its highways and byways, and the California Air Resource Board's insistence on the world's toughest diesel emissions regulations. 

So the D.C. DMV reckons the best way to cut lines is to remove the human element from the parking ticket adjudication process. In other words, as of December '08, D.C. drivers who want to bitch that they were busted unfairly can forget the whole "Here come da Judge!" routine. They've got to argue their case via letter or email. If I were a member of the PC police, I'd immediately point out that the move from oral to literary parking ticket protests puts minorities who can't read or write English at an immediate and dramatic disadvantage. If I were a nativist, I would point out that this policy will give non-literate minorities an immediate and dramatic advantage, as the government will no doubt provide an exemption from the WBO (written bitching only) ordinance or provide a savvy translator to craft the protest. In any case, as someone who tutored Freshman English at Tufts, I can tell you that D.C. is making a BIG mistake. The vast majority of the letters and emails flowing into the parking office will be illegible and incoherent. The ones that aren't will be pompous, long-winded and riddled with spurious arguments and outright deceit. They might as well just get a big ass rubber stamp (and electronic equivalent) that says "APPEAL DENIED" and stamp 599 out of 600 letters/emails with it. (You know, to be fair.) And mark my words, that's exactly what they'll do. And you know what? People will write back asking why their appeal was denied– even though there'll be text telling them not to– which they can't read, won't see or will ignore. How great is that? 

Our favorite motorists' rights crusader, The Newspaper, reports that Washington, DC's upcoming "Performance Plan" eliminates parking offenders' right to their day in court. No really. "The DMV will complete the phase-out of in-person adjudication of parking tickets in favor of mail-in and e-mail adjudication by December 2008." In case you hadn't figured it out already, The Newspaper says the move to suspend D.C. citizens' right to due process stems from a good old-fashioned cash grab. "As one-third of those who contest citations in the city are successful, the hearings cut significantly into the $100 million in revenue tickets generate each year." The new, more efficient (if entirely less personal) protesting policy comes on the heels of the D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's decision to equip street sweepers with automated parking enforcement cameras, destined to spit out $30 tickets at a fearsome clip. Meanwhile, one wonders if any legal challenge to the removal of a live Judge for parking offenses would have to be posted as well. 

The New York Times reports that local residents' "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY) attitude towards ethanol plant construction is slowing the industry's once inexorable expansion into the American heartland. "In Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and even Iowa, the nation’s largest corn and ethanol producer, this next-generation fuel finds itself facing the oldest of hurdles: opposition from residents who love the idea of an ethanol distillery so long as it is someplace else." The article cites a grass roots campaign in Sparta (uh-oh) Wisconsin, where locals worry about a proposed plant's aesthetics (it would mar golfers' views), tainted milk and smell ("like beer but with a metal smell mixed in"). Plant opponents have printed T-shirts reading “Good idea. Bad location.” Citing the economic benefits of ethanol plants, Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, had little time for such sentiment. "“There are some people who would rather see their town dry up and blow away than change the status quo." Yes, well, as the article points out, the bloom is off the ethanol industry rose. Despite– or because of– federal subsidies that would make a sugar grower smile (even more than usual), an ethanol glut has driven down prices. And the chattering classes are waking-up to the effects of ethanol production on water and food supplies. In other words, the battle lines are drawn. 

The "will they/won't they" question about a Prius-based plug-in electric vehicle (PHEV) is gradually being replaced with "how, when, what and where." Why? Because the Japanese automaker has announced it's sending a brace of Prius PHEVs to the University of California (UC) for study. They're current gen Prii fitted with extra nickel metal hydride batteries. Electric-only mode only kicks-in at slow speeds, intermittently, for seven miles, on a full charge. One of the PHEVs is headed for the boffins at the UC's Irvine's Advanced Power and Energy Program. They'll try to figure out how to rate the mpg on the wee beastie and whether or not there are any environmental benefits to partial plug-in power. The other PHEV goes to the social (not to say socialist) scientists at the University of California Berkeley. They're looking to determine whether not anyone wants the darn fool thing and what a PHEV has to do to hit the consumer sweet spot (e.g. range, charging time, battery size and battery costs). Toyota Motor Sales' Marketing and PR Communications Manager says buyers hot for a PHEV will have to wait 'til 2010, at the earliest. 

[Interview with Toyota PR on the whole PHEV thing below.] 

If you want to get the full flavor of dissent at the sharp end of the Ford contract approval [sic] process, visit The World Socialist Website. While we'd like to see some better reporting– details of the union's "campaign of lies and intimidation" and substantiation for the website's claim that Ford's VEBA health care superfund would "make the UAW the company’s largest shareholder, with a stake four times larger than the Ford family"– the workers' quotes make for powerful reading. Randy Hall: “They say layoffs can take place due to lack of product demand, but isn’t that the reason they are laying off in the first place?" Ken: "As for the VEBA, the union is going to end up stealing the money from the retirees. They never take the cuts they make the members take. The membership has been going down for years but the union officials’ salaries haven’t gone down." David: "How are you going to promote solidarity when you have one group working for half the wages?" And one unnamed worker (take that as you will): "They used to divide us between black and white. Now it’s US workers and workers overseas. To me the divide is between the rich and the poor. Race is used to camouflage the real issue. I can’t just lay down and let them rape me. This local is supposed to be the heart of the union and they have totally sold us out.”

We're big fans of The Detroit News (DTN). While we never hesitate to hold the paper's editorial feet to the proverbial fire for failing to maintain a jaundiced journalistic eye, we respect the comprehensiveness of their coverage. But the paper's decision to diss a blogger reveals a side of their 'tude that makes us wonder if the patrician paper will ever understand the distinction between "us" (jobbing journos) and "them" (the car industry). A Business Insider piece mocked the cluelessness of a Joblo.com blogger at a Ford Mustang Bullitt intro. "JoBlo didn't show much interest in the 4.7-liter V-8 with a cold-air intake, the brushed aluminum dash or the enhanced suspension that lets the car cut corners like an ultra-cool movie icon. In fact, during the first day of the drive, he talked about movies, life in L.A. and the cool fog coming off of the mountains, which reminded him of 'Friday the 13th' movies. When it came time for JoBlo to take the wheel, he passed, citing one problem Ford forgot to check. 'I really don't know how to drive a stick,' he said." Not nice.

Rumors of a Ferrari SUV have gone code red ever since Porsche did the unthinkable: built a truck and banked enough bucks to begin their "Maus that Roared" Volkswagen takeover. Last month, WorldCarsFans gave a name to the Ferraristis' pain: the Ferrari FS 599 Fuoristrada. Their "Italian contact with insider info" sets the SUV's "target" world debut for the 2010 Geneva Auto Show. Needless to say, this unconfirmed not to say entirely speculative "report" set the internet abuzz. Over at StreetFire.net, commentator Bromano83 claimed he actually saw Elvis the Ferrari SUV– in Carmel, Indiana (live webcam here if you want to keep an eye out for the Italian off-roader). While no one in their right mind– both inside and outside Ferrari– would seriously consider the possibility of diluting the world's strongest automotive brand with a truck, there are those who point to the Lamborghini LM002 (a.k.a. "Rambo") as proof that people in the Italian automotive industry are prone to mental illness. Anyway, TTAC's house photochopper Andrei Avarvarii sent us this image, which puts the FX in the FS. Given our name, we make no comment whatsoever about the existence of this vehicle. Except for: noooooooooooooooooo.

[For more photochoppistry, click over to www.avarvarii.com]

The New Anatolian (Turkey's Only Independent English-language daily) reports that Proton plans to team-up with Iran and Turkey to adapt their products for the Islamic market.  We're talking about a built-in compass to determine the direction of Mecca for prayers, compartments specifically designed for storing the Quran and headscarves, and, uh, that's about it. Proton's Managing Director told Turkey's national news agency Bernama that the modifications were part of Iran's thinly-veiled (so to speak) plans to play the spiritual card to attract the region's car buyers. ''What they want to do is to call that an Islamic car,'' Syed Zainal Abidin said. Since it's inception in 1983, the Malaysian automaker has been no stranger to governmental intervention. Proton's domination of its home market was in no small part due to onerous import duties levied against its erstwhile competition. ("Was" in the sense that their share of the Malaysian market has slipped from 60 percent to 23 percent.) Will Iran skew the market in a similar way to favor domestically-built "Islamic" cars, and exclude any automaker who isn't in bed with the ruling regime? Sounds like a plan to me.  

GM touts their new Chevrolet Malibu as "The car you can't ignore." I've driven the new ‘Bu. It's a handsome, well-built, thoroughly competent machine. As good as it is, Chevrolet's mid-size sedan will only remain psychologically inescapable as long as GM sustains the car's $150m ad campaign. To suggest otherwise ignores the quality and strength of the ‘Bu's competition. It's yet another example of GM's mindless arrogance. In fact, Chevy's first hit in years is already in deep trouble, as I discovered down at the dealership.

Once again, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has addressed automotive issues. This time, Friedman weighs-in on the ultra-cheap car being posited for the rapidly-growing Indian market. The gist of Friedman’s proposal: tax the stuffing out of the cheap car and put the money into mass-transit. Like most of Friedman’s auto-related rants, this one combines a handful of valid points, a couple of keen observations, a soupcon of knee-jerk utopianism and enough muddled thinking to make it impossible to support his views.

iAfrica reports on CARS' (Committee for Active Road Safety) on-going campaign to raise South Africa's automotive safety standards. The association claims that a recently released report from the National Vehicle Testing Association shows that 80 percent of vehicles on the Republic's roads are unsafe to drive. "This is a totally untenable situation and we fully support them in their call to have the regular testing of vehicles written into our statutes," announced CARS' chairperson Ian Auret. Yup, that's right: there is no annual, bi-annual or any kind of annual testing procedure for South Africa's privately-owned passenger vehicles. Stats on Africa's automotive carnage are notoriously hard to come by (reliable stats even more so). The UN's Global Road Safety Partnership estimates 111.4 deaths per 10k licensed RSA drivers. That's not bad compared to the Central African Republic's (under-reported) 339.2, but it's still a plenty heavy toll for automotive independence.

If you're want to run a bunch– OK 30– hydrogen cars without answering uncomfortable questions about how much energy you used to make the hydrogen inside the hydrogen fuel cells and how much carbon releasing the process involved, where better to plunk your water vapor emitting vehicles than Norway? I mean, these guys are serious about switching to hydrogen– as is the prerogative of a country flooded with petro-dollars harvested from selling the black stuff on the world market. To that end, Auto Spectator reports reprints a Mazda press release revealing that the Japanese automaker has signed a "memorandum of understanding for collaboration and support in the development of a Hydrogen Economy" with HyNor （Hydrogen Road of Norway）. More prosaically, Mazda's selling them 30 RX-8 Hydrogen RE vehicles for their "real life implementation of a hydrogen energy infrastructure" along a route of 580 kilometers from Oslo to Stavanger. HyNor's side of the press release is all about "climate change mitigation," "Hydrogen Society," "carbon neutral infrastructure," "real hydrogen world" (as opposed to?), etc. For its part, Mazda wants the world to know that Norway's RX-8s are the first hydrogen-powered vehicles they've sold outside of Japan. Way to keep your eye on the ball!

Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington. All these states want to follow California's lead and implement new tailpipe legislation designed to curb greenhouse gases. Problem: automotive emission standards are a federal gig. So California applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a waiver that would allow them to, in effect, usurp Uncle Sam's powers in this regard (commercial considerations would continue to force all automakers to meet the California standard). The EPA said we'll think about it and get back to you by the end of the year. Seems that ain't good enough for California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. As the AP reports, the former Hummer H2 driver/promoter's Attorney General has filed suit against the feds yesterday to force a right now dammit decision. The battle lines are drawn. Automakers are, obviously, against state standards; they're appealing a Vermont decision that allows The Green Mountain State to use California emissions legislation. For their part, the EPA says California "is more interested in getting a good headline than allowing us to make a good decision." They’re also considering legislation that's tougher than CA standards. Meanwhile, Ahnold is determined to win this battle. If the lawsuit is unsuccessful and the EPA says go fish, "We'll sue again, sue again and sue again until we get it."

"As Congress makes final decisions on the energy bill, one of the most important decisions to be made is whether or not to implement a more aggressive national renewable fuels standard (RFS). This is a no-brainer… Opponents of the RFS– and we all know who they are– have decided that the best way to avoid one is to smear corn ethanol… This clever campaign is loaded with half-truths and red herrings. Along with misleading claims that ethanol contributes to global warming, or relies too heavily on public subsidies– subsidies which are a rounding error compared to government subsidization of the oil industry– it is often said that ethanol is not produced in a renewable manner or that it increases food prices… The fact that fossil fuels are required to produce ethanol from these renewable feedstocks is a given, because the production of any source of energy requires energy, and the U.S. energy sector is fossil-fuel based. But ethanol producers are increasingly efficient, and some are beginning to co-fire their plants with biomass. Most importantly to me, the feedstocks for biofuels are domestic. No U.S. soldier will ever die defending a cornfield… Government support for corn ethanol is miniscule compared to the $3 billion U.S. taxpayers spend each week fighting wars in the Middle East… Corn ethanol can take us only so far. I look forward to the day when the next generation of biofuels are commercialized and widely available… But to get to tomorrow we need to make pragmatic choices today. That means a strong renewable fuel standard in this year''s energy bill to ensure that the next generation of biofuels becomes a reality."