When it comes to sharing our feelings about the automotive buff books' advertising-tainted editorial, TTAC leaves no words unminced. However, every now and then, genuine journalism rears its feisty head. In the March issue of Motor Trend, Arthur St. Antoine speaks his piece about hybrids. The columnist calls them "nothing more than the four-wheeled equivalent of a yellow LiveStrong wristband- a conspicuous, self-satisfying, effort-free membership card into the 'I Care' club." The most egregious example of this hypocritical hybrid mindset? The Lexus LS 600hL. St. Antoine points out that the 600hL's hybrid premium ($33k) buys you a little extra power and minimal fuel economy gains. So why are the 600hL's moving at the rate of 1000 per month and other other hybrids are selling like Sno-cones in Hades? "The appeal of the LS 600hL (and, I fear, most other current hybrids) is simple sanctimoniousness… why, it's a hybrid. Pay no attention to the colossal luxury sedan behind the curtain! Cue the rainbow and the baby seals!" And here's the best part; the editorial's next to a special advertising section entitled "Chevy's Hybrid Revolution." This Motor Trend produced insert extols the virtues of the bargain-basement semi-hybrid Malibu (with its huge two mpg increase in fuel economy) and the super-sized, outrageously-priced Silverado and Tahoe hybrids. We reckon Angus should be getting "that" phone call any day now. 

A new report in Science magazine [reported by Yahoo! News] claims that "using good cropland to expand biofuels will probably exacerbate global warming." The researchers worry that farmers looking to cash in on ethanol will continue to plow up more forests and/or grasslands. Biofuels boosters have cited studies stating corn-based ethanol produces 20 percent less greenhouse gases than gas, while celluosic ethanol results in a 70 percent reduction. The Science study says the analysis was "one-sided;" it didn't include the carbon costs of land use change. Factor in that variable, and corn-based ethanol production would increase greenhouse gases by 93 percent (compared to gasoline over a 30-year period). The Renewable Fuels Association dismissed the researchers' conclusions as simplistic. "Assigning the blame for rainforest deforestation and grassland conversion to agriculture solely on the renewable fuels industry ignores key factors that play a greater role." The ethanol industry cheerleaders didn't speciify those "key factors."

KFMB TV reports that some 3k people attended a public hearing in Del Mar, California to have their say regarding a toll road extension through San Onofre State Park. Supporters say the project will end gridlock on I-5 (a.k.a. “the five”) running between Orange County and San Diego County. Opponents contend that the Route 241 extension would wipe out endangered species, ruin the park and destroy Trestles Beach, a popular surfing site. San Diego City Councilmember Donna Frye sided with the nay-sayers. "What we're saying to future generations is that roads and cement and going fast mean more to us than our natural resources and our state parks?” After a 14-hour-long meeting, the state Coastal Commission voted eight to two against the new tarmac. Given that the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is located between San Onofre State Beach and San Onofre Surf Beach, Dude, how bad could a road extension be? Given the UK's powerful [green] anti-roads lobby, we reckon it won't be long before California's Alliance for a Paving Moratorium (or similar) girds-up for more Golden State pavement battles.

As drivers replace their gas-guzzlers with more efficient vehicles, drive less and/or start using alternate transportation, gas tax revenues are dropping. The Seattle Post-Intelligence reports that Washington state is responding to this environmentally beneficial trend with an annual tax tied to a vehicle's EPA-rated fuel economy. Under Senate Bill 6923, a Prius owner will pay $60 per year, while an H3 owner would be dunned three times that amount. Bill sponsor State senator Ed Murray denies the measure is a greenwashed cash grab. "The (governor's) climate advisory team said that the biggest global warming problem in this state is actually from transportation." How a state can have a "global" warming problem isn't quite clear, but Ed claims Washington's industry is "fairly clean." The real problem? "The number of automobiles." Lower-income drivers will be hardest hit by the new rules, as they are least capable of switching to newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Estimates show they'll have to pay an average of $113 per year. 

Richard Parry-Jones is Ford's former chassis guru, the man who worked miracles for Ford of Europe's mainstream motors. icWales.co.uk reports that the Welshman isn't enamored with the ongoing assault on motoring in the name of climate change. PJ told members of the Cardiff Business Club (at The St David’s Hotel & Spa) that CO2 emissions must be reduced by all sectors; cars are only a part of the climate change problem. In other words, don't throw the four-wheeled baby out with the rising bath water, boyo. “Should we not look again at the sheer cost effectiveness of cars providing transportation and pleasure to society and embrace and encourage new car technology and improved road capacity?" Hey, good luck with that. Meanwhile, the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) wants his fellow Welshmen to know he's not a car slut. "I am pro-mobility and I am pro the environment – and actually I think most of us are.” If only common sense were common.

Think The Big 2.8 have it rough with new federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards? The ex-chairman of Shell Oil is calling for the European Union to ban all cars that get less than 35mpg. Pistonheads reports that Sir Mark Moody-Stuart told the BBC that "nobody needs a car that does 10-15mpg." An Aston is OK, "but only if it did 50 – 60mpg." Sir Mark doesn't agree that increasing road and fuel taxes is a better way level the proverbial playing field; the wealthy shouldn't be allowed to pay their way out of their responsibility for climate change. Sir Mark did relent a bit on the subject of older cars. Under his "If I ruled the world" plan, sub-35 mpg motors would be allowed to "die off" as they're replaced by newer high-mileage vehicles. And if you think Sir Mark is just another sherry-addled Lord, keep in mind that the EU in general, the UK in specific and London in particular are doing everything they can to tax low mileage cars off the roads. Sir Mark's ban is simply the logical progression of an existing policy.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is under fire from California. Golden State regulators are trying usurp the federal agency's power to set fleet-wide fuel economy averages by classifying CO2 as a pollutant. Rather than fighting the move– debating the "facts" of global warming in the Supreme Court– the EPA is signaling its desire to weasel cut some kind of compromise. While it's unlikely the EPA will do anything to upset Congress' "35 by 2020" mpg applecart, Wardsauto.com reports that the EPA Air Quality Supremo Margo Oge stepped-up to the microphone at the Automotive News shindig and told automakers that "we must bring about an end to the horsepower arms race among auto makers and replace it with another different kind of a race, a race to produce the most affordable and desirable, low carbon-vehicle each year.” New industrial revolution, must reduce greenhouse gas emissions, college kids are green, yada yada yada, California wins but WE'LL handle it. Meanwhile, someone should tell Oge that the horsepower wars are already done; automakers are competing with each other to green-up and meet the EU and NTSA's new fuel economy regs (e.g. GM's Ultrav8tracide and Voltmania). Still, thanks for the career-boosting rhetorical carrot. 

See? I knew this video box thing would come in handy again. Obviously, we need someone to scan and blog YouTube on TTAC's behalf (robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com). Meanwhile Frank ran into this gem of a site while looking for the official EPA mpgs for the Hummer H2. Did you know the mondo-SUV is still exempt from EPA mpg requirements (it gets "around" 10 – 12 mpg)? I bet the impolite webslingers at FUH2.com do. After all, the site's strapline and pretty permalink both read "Fuck You and Your H2." Their beef? "While our brothers and sisters are off in the Middle East risking their lives to secure America's fossil fuel future, H2 drivers are pissing away our 'spoils of victory' during each trip to the grocery store." More specifically, they claim the H2 is a polluter (producing "3.4 metric tons of carbon emissions in a typical year, nearly double that of G.M.'s Chevrolet Malibu sedan"), a death machine ("You'd better hope that you don't collide with an H2 in your economy car. You can kiss your ass goodbye thanks to the H2's massive weight and raised bumpers") and, most aggravatingly of all, a tax loophole ("Under the current tax laws, business owners can deduct nearly half the cost of their H2s"). Anyway, there's a certain monotony to the 4470 pics of one-finger saluted H2s, but we like page 355. What do the Padres have to do with this?

With air quality so toxic that Olympic athletes plan to train outside the city, with its international reputation for peace, love and harmony on show for the entire world, Beijing knows it has to clean up its act. The Beijing News (via the New York Times) reports that city officials want to de-smog the world's most polluted urban atmos by cutting its motorized traffic in half. (That's up from the one-third target that TTAC's Adrian Imonti reported back in August.) To that end, the government is considering implementing the number plate restrictions trialled last summer. The move should take about 1.65m vehicles off Beijing's roads each day during the Games. As you might expect from a military dictatorship, the Powers that Be in the People's Republic of China (PRC) are contemplating other, equally draconian corrective measures. The Old Gray lady reports that the PRC may also shut down factories throughout northern China during the Games. Paycheck? What paycheck? Gone, in the name of Citius, Altius, Fortius.

Credit where credit's due: the executive director of GM Powertrain's fuel cell activities realizes that this may not be the best time to clamor for a suck on the taxpayers' collective tit. As Automotive News [AN, sub] reports, J. Byron McCormick was careful to cloak his call for federal funding in vague and patriotic terms. "Without more investment, there is a real threat that alternative vehicle technologies and development of the hydrogen automobile will leave the United States… Other countries are investing heavily in this sector and could surpass the United States." Oh no! A hydrogen gap! Let's throw some tax money at it, 'cause if we don't "There is a real chance that [a hydrogen gap] could happen. If that happens, what happens to the jobs, to the learning and the skills that go with it?" Oh, hang on. "But for now, McCormick said the United States has technology momentum in the field. 'We have a wonderful opportunity to put the United States in a leadership position,' he added." Still, "There are a number of regions getting their act together. I would hate as a U.S. citizen and taxpayer to have the United States become complacent." And I would hate as a U.S. citizen and taxpayer to have to pay for any more of GM's R&D bill. 

Even if the stars don't leave the lines at home for this year's Grammy awards– must respect the little people's writer's strike– Chevy will be there. Their press release proudly proclaims "Chevrolet will bring an eco-friendly presence" to the awards this year. The gas-friendly to gas-free automaker will provide "a mix of 100 Tahoe Hybrids and FlexFuel E85 ethanol Tahoe and Suburban SUVs" to ferry oblivious talent to the award show "in a fuel-efficient way." And if that wasn't enough to prove GM's green creds to the music industry, they'll also "'electrify" the red carpet with a show-stopping display of the extended-range electric vehicle Chevy Volt Concept car." [NB: That's not the hidden-from-the-public, aerodynamically dumbed-down revised Volt headed for Chevy showrooms by… uh… when-ever.] What a difference a year makes. In '07, Cadillac provided non E-85 gas-guzzling Escalades for the same affair. I guess that was SO last year.

Environmentally-sensitive rental car customers can now drive someone else's vehicle with a clean conscious. Automotive News [sub] reports that Enterprise, National and Alamo are all set to sell "carbon offsets" with their rental contracts. The opt-in program adds $1.25 to the price of the rental. The money goes towards "carbon offset projects, such as wind farms, that reduce the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere." TerraPass, which handles the credits, estimates that every 100k customers participating will offset over 30m pounds of CO2. We called TerraPass to ask how much of the fee went directly to projects (i.e. what percentage was "absorbed" by administrative costs). Their PR rep Samantha Weeks said "We're a privately held company. We don't disclose information like that." So now you [don't] know. 

USA Today reports that a new study by the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO) claims that cars, trucks, airplanes, trains and ships generate 15 percent of the manmade CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere. "The scientists reported that within the transport sector, road transportation (cars, buses and trucks) contribute the most greenhouse gases, which includes CO2, ozone, methane, and others." So big ass yachts and U.S. presidential candidates' private jets get a pass, eh? According to the report by CICERO Research Director Jan S. Fuglestved, the remaining 85 percent of atmospheric CO2 comes from industry, buildings and agriculture. Meanwhile, writing for Yahoo! News, one Jack Kelly argues that the mass media "Promotes Global Warming Alarmism." In the piece, Weather Channel founder John Coleman says "Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going… In time, in a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious." So should we even be running this story?

When the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid was named "Green Car of the Year" at the Los Angeles Auto Show last year, we had a "WTF?" reaction. Unlike the maudlin mainstream media, we didn't see the logic of putting that much effort into a gas-guzzling behemoth with lagging sales when it could be better used in smaller, more salable vehicles. The LA Times' Dan Neil had a similar reaction when he drove it. While the Pulitzer-prize winning auto critic found the execution of the technology flawless, he questioned the claimed milage imporvements. "What would the mileage of this vehicle be with all the improved aerodynamics [the hybrid has a Cd of 0.34 as opposed to the standard model's 0.39], low-rolling resistance tires and aluminum body panels, yet without the fretful weight (and cost) of the hybrid system?" Echoing a sentiment expressed on this site several times, Dan the Man asks, "Does this super-low-volume program do more for corporate image than corporate average fuel economy?" In his final analysis he concludes, "For now, we have this paradox, a fantastically fuel-efficient vehicle that's still a gas hog. A hybrid that's simultaneously good (promise) and bad (reality). Matters can only get more muddled when the Hybrid Hummer comes rolling out." Meanwhile, GM has announced they'll introduce a scaled-down version of the Tahoe's "dual mode" system in the '09 Saturn Vue Green Line.

Bentley CEO Franz-Josef Paefgen had a little kaffee und kuchen with the Financial Times Deustchland, kicking things off with a representative combination of Germanic bluntness and English understatement. "I loved the car and the company, but if you saw the scale of the challenge and the inexperienced workforce, it was a bit of a challenge." Und now? Bentley's racked-up €107m profit in the first nine months of this year. But Paefgen warns that Bentley's endive days are over. "You should not expect another 15 per cent growth now with all the basic models now in place. The growth will be more moderate and the business more stable – not exploding as it was over the past five years or so." Responding to Bentley's "growing exposure as a fashion brand," Paefgen's glad not all his customers are "football stars and other trendy people," and claims Bentley's protected by its "very strong connection with our traditional brand values." Amongst which fuel economy does not rank, and that's a BIG problem. "'If everyone is going to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 per cent, we have to do at least 20 per cent, or maybe more. This is accepted. There is no problem.' But he admits that if particularly stiff limits on CO2 emissions were imposed 'there will be no Bentley any more.'" Oh dear.