No, we’re not anticipating more congressional hearings. The AP (Breitbart) reports that inappropriately named Zero Pollution Motors is trying to bring MDI’s compressed-air technology to America. Again. Still. There’s only one problem. “Air compressors are one of the least efficient machines to convert electricity to work,” says Harold Kung, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University. “Why not use the electricity directly, as in electric cars? From an energy utilization point of view, the compressed (air) car does not make sense.” What the professor appears to be missing is that the firm is called Zero Pollution Motors. Put that in your chemical engineering bong and and give it a toke.

According to the AP, “sections of Broadway from 47th to 42nd streets and 35th to 33rd streets have been closed to cars in a city effort to reduce traffic and pollution and cut down on pedestrian accidents.” According to the NY Post, drivers are “furious,” arguing that the shutdown will actually worsen congestion.

Early reports on the new national emissions/CAFE standard seemed to imply that California would be barred from moving the goalposts again on emissions. Not so, it seems. Automotive News [sub] reports that California’s Air Resource Board (CARB) is preparing the next round of emissions standards, and (surprise!) they will become more strict rather than the other way around. Or, as CARB Chair Mary Nichols puts it, 2016 will see the emergence of “a much more stringent standard.”

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Tense, Bob, tense. Repeat after me, “we have failed to survive . . . “

A joint EPA-DOT document (PDF) explaining the updated national CAFE/emissions standards reveals a number of the new loopholes that will help automakers slip under the seemingly high standard. To kick things off, the EPA/DOT remind the reader that new standards were assembled using “the art of the possible.” to wit:

“There is a wide range of technologies available for manufacturers to consider in upgrading vehicles to reduce GHG emissions and improve fuel economy.7 These include improvements to the engines such as use of gasoline direct injection and downsized engines that use turbochargers to provide performance similar to that of larger engines, the use of advanced transmissions, increased use of start-stop technology, improvements in tire performance, reductions in vehicle weight, increased use of hybrid and other advanced technologies, and the initial commercialization of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Although many of these technologies are available today, the emissions reductions and fuel economy improvements under consideration for the proposal would be expected to involve more widespread use of these technologies across the fleet.”

Unless they don’t feel like it, of course. Loopholes are just as important as technology.

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Two new Nissan GTRs were some of the first sales to be recorded after the UK introduced its clunker-rebate scheme yesterday. “Buyers pounced within five hours of the initiative starting this morning,” reported Autotrader.co.uk. Britain’s scrappage incentive offers about $3K per scrapped ten-years-or-older vehicle, but unlike other EU nations, Britain did not place carbon emission limits on qualifying new cars. Because, as Autotrader points out, proponents of the bill worked with the assumption that rising efficiency averages means all new cars are less polluting than the vehicles they would replace. Nissan’s GTR emits 298g/km of CO2, earning it a spot in Britain’s most-polluting tax band. We can only hope our own eventual scrappage rebate will be vulnerable to similar abuse.

The NY Times is reporting that President Obama will announce new emissions standards tomorrow that are aimed at ending the discrepancy between Californian and national emissions standards. The federal effort will combine California’s emissions standards with the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard, creating a unified national benchmark. This will force OEMs to clean up emissions by 30 percent by 2016, while preventing California from moving the goalposts again, say industry officials. The upshot? By 2016 car offerings must average 42mpg while trucks will face a 26.2mpg average requirement.

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The Detroit News reports that Michigan’s congressional delegation has secured an agreement with House Democrats that could send three percent of the revenue from carbon emissions permits to American automakers starting in 2012. That would amount to billions of dollars every year, says DetN, and that’s not all. The new compromise also includes changes to carbon-cap proposals that “could ease the impact on states such as Michigan that rely heavily on coal for electricity generation.”

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Auto industry supporters claim the EPA’s new dominion over CO2 regulations could be disastrous for the troubled industry. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) agrees. Well, they did. A freshly leaked Bush-era memo reveals the agency had a major beef or two with the EPA’s recent ruling that carbon dioxide is—and should be regulated as—a pollutant. According to John Broder of the NYT, the document concludes that the EPA’s CO2 ruling “was not based on a systematic analysis of costs and benefits and fell short of scientific rigor on a number of issues.” Complaints with the ruling range from insufficient proof of C02’s harmful environmental effects to the negative economic impacts of C02 regulation (there’s your auto angle again).

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President Bush’s imaginatively-named “Freedom Fuel Initiative” has been slashed by President Obama, cutting $100 million per year from hydrogen research funding according to DailyTech. Government spending on hydrogen fuel cell technology will drop from about $169 million per year to about $69 million, as a natural and healthy skepticism grows about hydrogen’s short-term potential. “The probability of deploying hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in the next 10 to 20 years is low,” say Department of Energy spokesfolks, taking an early lead for understatement of the week.

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Earth2Tech, Earth2Tech. Come in, Tech. You may be wondering if green websites like Earth2Tech are anxious about the possibility that GM (and/or its new masters) will kill the electric/gas hybrid Chevrolet Volt. You may recall that the Presidential Task Force on Autos (PTFOA) tore the Volt a new exhaust pipe in its original GM viability slam down. And it seems like there’s a bit of a C11 thing happening over at RenCen. Anyway, to their credit, Earth2Tech’s Volt-related concerns are global. So they emailed GM for reassurance on the European Volt program. And, by jove, they got it! “The Ampera is being developed in the U.S., and GM remains firm on its plans to bring the Ampera to the EU,” blogger Josie Garthwaite reports. And now, from the horses mouth: “‘We don’t expect any disruptions to our plans,’ GM spokeswoman Natalie Johnson told us in an email today. Neither does the Opel team. Communications director Rene Kreis reiterated that Ampera production is on schedule to begin in late 2011.” Good to go is one thing. But no disruptions? Props for maximum chillaxitude. Alternatively, brickbats for the usual spinmeisterly BS. Your call.

And another thing. In this internet world of ours, what media outlet would announced the findings of a controversial report without linking to the damn thing? The BBC, for one. “The city’s air quality is well below EU targets and is having a ‘severe impact’ on the NHS, the London Assembly’s Environment Committee said. The research also found that emissions from diesel vehicles remains the main source of pollution. It urged the mayor to take more ‘bold action’ on the issue.” Why is it that whenever a political quango (or the media) calls for “bold action” I want to run the other way? Turns out the headline figure comes from here: “Government estimates suggest that air pollution contributes to around 1,000 premature deaths in London each year, but recent data from the European Environment Agency suggests that this could be closer to 3,000. However, both of these figures are estimations for London, based on calculations from UK figures, since the Committee is not aware of accurate, empirical data for London.” More specifically, here: “recent report from the European Environment Agency indicates that air pollution contributed to 650 deaths per million people in the UK in 2005. This could indicate up to 3,000 deaths for London based on its population.” Science much? Anyway, public transportation (i.e., busses) kills. Who knew?

Newsday reports that New York City has purchased 40 Nissan Altima Hybrids for its police fleet. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg pointed out that the Smyrna, TN-built Altimas enjoy a patriotic advantage over the Canadian-produced Crown Victorias and Chevy Impalas that comprise most of the NYPD’s fleet of 2,400 patrol vehicles. “It is an added benefit that buying these cars helps create jobs in America,” says Bloomberg. According to the report, some traffic enforcement agents have been using Toyota Prius hybrids since 2002, and police duty captains, who respond to major incidents, have already been using GMC Yukon sport utility vehicle hybrids. “We’ve had no downside,” says Police Commissioner Ray Kelly of his force’s hybrid use.

And that’s just the prototype. The LA Times‘ Dan Neil (the automotive journalist’s automotive journalist) got an exclusive first up-close look at Tesla’s Model S and comes away with some healthy skepticism. What did he learn? “Tesla has already had to walk back a claim regarding the Model S’ recharge capacity. The car will not have the capacity to accept 440-volt current, which would allow it to be charged in 45 minutes,” for one thing. The prototype “is just barely ambulatory,” writes Neil. “More like a glorified golf cart than a harbinger of tomorrow tech.” Also, “the car’s signature design flourish—a 17-inch, touch-screen control panel with haptic feedback in the center console —may not even make it to production.” And Neil’s skepticism is contagious: The Business Insider concludes that “There’s No Way Tesla’s Model S Will Cost $57,400” even after hefty government incentives. Ouch.