(Source: Transportation Research Board)

TRB will conduct a web briefing or “Webinar” on Tuesday, June 30, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT that will explore the fundamentals of climate change with Dr. Steven Davis-Mendelow. 

Dr. Steven Davis-Mendelow, a spokesperson for The Climate Project, will provide an engaging presentation about the fundamentals of climate change to help the transportation community better plan policy and projects.  Mr. William Malley, partner at the law firm of Perkins Coie LLP, will provide comments after Dr. Davis-Mendelow’s presentation.  This webinar is based off of a 2009 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting session. 

The Climate Project is an international non-profit founded by former Vice President Al Gore.  The mission of The Climate Project is to increase public awareness of the climate crisis at a grassroots level.  For more than a year, Dr. Davis-Mendelow has led discussions worldwide addressing the challenges of, and solutions to the climate crisis from individual, community and corporate perspectives.  Professionally, Dr. Davis-Mendelow is an aerospace expert whose career focuses on long-term market and environmental trend analysis and strategy. 

Mr. Malley represents public- and private-sector clients on a wide range of environmental issues, with a focus on environmental impact assessment for infrastructure projects.   He also serves as an advisor to AASHTO on legislation and policies related to climate change and transportation.  Dr. Julia Gamas, an Environmental Protection Specialist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will moderate the session. 

For more information on the Climate Project, visit:  http://www.theclimateproject.org/. 

This webinar is co-sponsored by the Transportation Research Board and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. 

Registration:  There is no fee for TRB Sponsors, listed here: http://www.trb.org/directory/sponsors.asp. Others must pay $99 per site.   

For questions about using this software, including webinar audio or visual complications, please contact Reggie Gillum at rgillum@nas.edu or 202-334-2382.

(Source: NY Times)

London taxicabs were ranked the best in the world in a survey conducted by the travel site Hotels.com. Voters thought London cabbies were the friendliest, safest and had the best knowledge of their city.  But like many things in this world, you get what you pay for. London cabbies were also considered to be the most expensive.

The survey was conducted among 1,400 travelers from several European countries in May. Last year, London cabbies also topped the voting.

London cabbies must undergo years of training before they get behind the wheel. The All London Knowledge (most often referred to simply as “the Knowledge”) entails a dizzying array of routes, landmarks and the quickest way point-to-point. On average, it takes three to four years for an applicant to learn the Knowledge.

(Source: New York Times & Fox News)

It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.  

Image Courtesy: New York Times

But that, in short, is the job description for Brian Deese, a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry.  

“There was a time between Nov. 4 and mid-February when I was the only full-time member of the auto task force,” Mr. Deese, a special assistant to the president for economic policy, acknowledged recently as he hurried between his desk at the White House and the Treasury building next door. “It was a little scary.”

But now, according to those who joined him in the middle of his crash course about the automakers’ downward spiral, he has emerged as one of the most influential voices in what may become President Obama’s biggest experiment yet in federal economic intervention.  So what does Mr.Deese’s resume look like? It should be impressive, considering he’s managing America’s $458,000 per dayinvoluntary investment.

Deese grew up in a Boston suburb, the son of a political science professor at Boston College. He moved to Vermont and attended Middlebury College, where he studied political science and also took time to host a campus radio show called “Bedknobs and Beatniks,” described in one write-up as “a format of music, news, discussion and banter.”

While far more prominent members of the administration are making the big decisions about Detroit, it is Mr. Deese who is often narrowing their options.

A month ago, when the administration was divided over whether to support Fiat’s bid to take over much of Chrysler, it was Mr. Deese who spoke out strongly against simply letting the company go into liquidation, according to several people who were present for the debate.

“Brian grasps both the economics and the politics about as quickly as I’ve seen anyone do this,” said Lawrence H. Summers, the head of the National Economic Council who is not known for being patient whenever he believes an analysis is sub-par — or disagrees with his own. “And there he was in the Roosevelt Room, speaking up vigorously to make the point that the costs we were going to incur giving Fiat a chance were no greater than some of the hidden costs of liquidation.”

Mr. Deese was not the only one favoring the Fiat deal, but his lengthy memorandum on how liquidation would increase Medicaid costs, unemployment insurance and municipal bankruptcies ended the debate. The administration supported the deal, and it seems likely to become a reality on Monday, if a federal judge handling the high-speed bankruptcy proceeding approves the sale of Chrysler’s best assets to the Italian carmaker.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

 The biggest hurdle to the historic sale of General Motors Corp.’s Hummer brand to a little-known Chinese manufacturer of dump trucks and industrial machinery may be receiving Beijing’s seal of approval.

The Obama administration has already expressed strong support for the proposed sale to Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. But before it can buy Hummer, Tengzhong, based in Sichuan province, needs support from three different Chinese government agencies governing overseas investment, economic planning and China’s tight controls on foreign exchange.

China’s economic planning agency will have to weigh the Sichuan-based company’s desire to buy the company against its policies to encourage more fuel-efficient vehicles and automobile-industry consolidation.

Meanwhile, a visit to Tengzhong’s facilities, where workers make small batches of machinery parts at a time, highlight questions about the company’s technical readiness to manufacture a complex passenger vehicle — especially if some manufacturing of the vehicles eventually shifts to China, as is “logical” if the bid succeeds, a person familiar with the situation said.

Normally, China’s high-profile outbound investments involve government ministries at every step of the process, because the buyers are owned by the central government. Tengzhong, however, is privately held, with few assets and no experience in commercial automobiles.

“There aren’t many precedents for this transaction,” says Jeanette Chan, a partner at law firm Paul Weiss in Hong Kong.

She notes new rules that came into effect May 1 require a number of approvals before Tengzhong and GM can sign a binding agreement. The rules stipulate that overseas investments of more than $100 million require central government approvals, while provincial governments can sign off on smaller deals.

Central government agencies expected to review the deal include the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. Of these, the commerce ministry’s approval is most important; if its approval process runs smoothly, it will take at least 30 working days, Ms. Chan said.

While the company appears to have ties in the local government, that won’t likely translate to any clout on the national level. On Wednesday, Tengzhong’s CEO Yang Yi said the company was “in the middle of the approval process.”

Key criteria include whether the company will be able to fund the purchase and succeed in developing the business. Tengzhong hasn’t released information about its finances, but it appears to be relatively small. Analysts expect Tengzhong to pay $200 million to $300 million for Hummer.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source:  The Detroit News & SFGate.com)

Supporters have dropped an attempt to add “cash for clunkers” legislation to a tobacco regulation bill now before the Senate, a setback in efforts to boost car sales with federal subsidies.

“There are technical details to work out and the senator continues to look for a vehicle to pass this very important piece of legislation,” said Brad Carroll, a spokesman for Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a co-sponsor of the bill.

Two congressional aides said the measure was derailed by objections from the Senate Appropriations Committee to using money from the $787 billion economic stimulus package for the measure, which would offer up to $4,500 credits for consumers trading in older, low-gas-mileage vehicles.

In January, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a bill, S247, that would give vouchers to people who turn in a car or truck that gets 15 or fewer miles per gallon to a dealer that scraps it.

Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, introduced one in the House, HR1550. A compromise version was attached to the 900-page energy bill that was passed last month by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., introduced an almost identical one in the Senate. Her bill, S1135, would provide vouchers of $3,500 or $4,500, depending on the difference in gas mileage between the clunker and the new vehicle. The vouchers could only be used to buy or lease new vehicles, not for used vehicles or mass transit.

Environmentalists oppose the two industry-supported bills because they would provide vouchers to people who scrap more fuel-efficient vehicles (18 mpg or less) than under the Feinstein proposal (15 mpg or less).

Last month, Sen. Feinstein proposed an alternative that is less stringent than her original bill but stricter than Stabenow’s. For details, see links.sfgate.com/ZHHC.

It’s not clear whether the Senate will back the Stabenow bill, the new Feinstein approach or a compromise.

“Fiscal conservatives and environmentalists oppose the more permissive Stabenow bill as an expensive subsidy for the ailing auto industry, while union and manufacturing interests oppose the stricter Feinstein approach, which would likely favor fuel-efficient imported vehicles,” said Benjamin Salisbury, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, in a report.

“The Senate could vote on both amendments and add the most popular one to unrelated legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products,” Salisbury wrote.

Idea likely to stick around

That didn’t happen Wednesday, as many expected. But with President Obama in favor of cash for clunkers, the idea is not likely to die.

Becker hopes Congress will not rush into passing a bill without enough research and debate to determine how much the program will cost and who will benefit most. “Somebody might come along and do clunker dating,” matching up people who want to buy new cars with people who have clunkers, he says.

He adds that Germany started a 1.5 billion euro cash-for-clunkers program this year and it has already swelled into a 5 billion euro program.

Consumers waiting to buy a new car until a bill passes should first figure out if their existing car would qualify under the scrapping plan. If so, the next question is whether the voucher would be worth more than the price they would get if they sold or traded in their car. If so, they should figure out whether the new car they want to buy would qualify. With so many unknowns remaining, it’s hard to reach a conclusion.

(Source: Green Car Congress & R744.com)

 South Korea plans to raise the fuel economy of locally-made vehicles to surpass future requirements being by the US and Japan, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE). Korea’s fuel efficiency standards are already slated to increase 16.5% in 2012 from the current levels. 

New passenger cars sold within the country in 2008 ran an average of 11.47 kilometers per liter of fuel (27 mpg US, 8.7 L/100km)—up from 11.04 km/L (26 mpg US, 9.1 L/100km) recorded in 2007.

South Korea enacted fuel economy standards in 2006 for domestic cars and in 2009 for imported cars with sales of less than 10,000 vehicles. Companies manufacturing or importing more than 10,000 vehicles per year are subject to US CAFE standards.  Standards as strict as those of advanced countries are likely to be in place by 2015 and 2020, MKE said.More importantly, a shift in purchasing habits to favor greener and more fuel-efficient vehicles will put Korea on the right path to the realization of its national vision—low carbon, green growth.

At present, Korean standards are at 12.4 km/l (29 mpg U.S.) for vehicles with engine displacements of 1.5 litres or less, and 9.6 km/l (22.6 mpg) for those above 1.5 litres. However, as a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) found last year, South Korea is the only nation in the world where fleet average fuel economy is projected to decline over the next five years due to a sharp increase of large engine sized cars. A 15% increase would thus raise the standards to about 14.3 l/km (33.6 mpg) and 11 km/l (25.9 mpg) respectively by 2012. By comparison, the U.S. fuel economy standards have been raised to 35 mpg by 2020. 

South Korea first developing country to set GHG emission targets under Kyoto
South Korea could become the first nation not obliged by the Kyoto Protocol to set a national GHG emissions target. The country will thus freeze its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 2005 levels, or 591 million tons of carbon dioxide, over the next five years, Environment Minister Lee Maan-Ee announced on 21 March. Korea’s first governmental scheme to tackle global warming will encourage the development of environmentally friendly vehicles, and initiate nationwide energy-saving campaigns in non-manufacturing sectors including households and commercial buildings. The freeze of GHG emissions until 2012 will actually be a small reduction as South Korea’s emissions have increased by an average of 2.2 percent annually in recent years.

The unprecedented move follows the United Nations climate change conference in Bali last December, where South Korea pledged to take concrete steps to curb emissions along with 130 other countries. Currently, South Korea is classified as a developing country not facing any emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol. However, as it is likely to be given the status of a developed country in a post-Kyoto agreement after 2012, the latest plan is seen by many as a preparation for even tougher targets in the future.

(Source: AP via Yahoo News & CNN)

Fears of stalled commerce and travel didn’t materialize at U.S. border crossings Monday as people stayed home or were gently warned on the first day of stricter identification requirements for Americans returning from Mexico and Canada.

Traffic generally moved smoothly as those without proper identification stayed home or immigration officials let them pass through with a reminder to get a passport or other accepted ID.

Those crossing the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge in South Texas described the light traffic Monday morning as normal, with cars and pedestrians facing short lines.

“There was nothing. Everything is all right,” said Yvonne Rivera, a U.S. citizen who lives in Reynosa, Mexico, and commutes to work in Texas. The 22-year-old said she got her passport in anticipation of the rule change.

There were some hiccups.

Rosario Aragon said she got into a heated, 30-minute discussion with a border agent demanding a passport for her 9-year-old girl, even though U.S. and Canadian children under the age of 16 only have to present a birth certificate.

The agent at an El Paso crossing let her through after taking her daughter’s name and warning her to get an official ID from local police.

“I’m angry because he held us up for 30 minutes,” the U.S. citizen said after she crossed into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

The new security rules for land and sea border crossings require U.S. citizens to show a passport, passport card or enhanced driver’s license, which use a microchip to store a person’s information. Some citizens may also use a trusted traveler document, which require background checks and are generally used by peoplecrossing the border regularly for business.

At the busiest passenger crossing along the northern border, the Peace Bridge between Buffalo, N.Y., andFort Erie, Ontario, traffic flowed smoothly with Customs and Border Protection officers reporting a 95 percent compliance rate with the new ID requirement. The Peace Bridge handled 8.9 million autos and 47,100 commercial buses in 2008.

Jessica Whitaker of London, Ontario, didn’t have a passport but was allowed in to the U.S. after showing her birth certificate and driver’s license. “They were very nice, very polite,” she said.

Kevin Corsaro, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Buffalo, N.Y., said it’s been a “routine Monday” with officers seeing a compliance rate as high as 95 percent throughout the Buffalo field office.

“We want to see 100 percent but we know that will take some time,” he said. “We won’t refuse entry to a Canadian if their only violation is they are noncompliant today, as long as we can verify their citizenship.”

The new rules for land and sea ports under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative were supposed to have gone into effect in 2008 but were delayed a year over concerns about the impact on commerce. The requirement for re-entering the country by air went into effect in 2007.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: CNNMoney.com)

President Obama to address nation.

General Motors, the nation’s largest automaker and for decades an icon of American manufacturing, stood Sunday on the brink of bankruptcy and a de facto government takeover.

Image Courtesy: CNN Money

A bankruptcy petition will be filed on Monday at 8 a.m., according to a source with direct knowledge of the bankruptcy proceedings.

Investors who own 54% of $27 billion in GM bonds have agreed to not fight plans for a quick bankruptcy process, GM said on Sunday.

The deal with bondholders could make it easier for GM to restructure by neutralizing some of the opposition to a bankruptcy filing. But it does not wipe away the need for the company to seek court protection for making drastic reductions in dealer, labor and other costs.

President Obama will address the nation shortly before noon on Monday to discuss the bankruptcy, two officials close to the situation told CNN. Obama will explain the rationale for the filing and his hopes that this is the best route for a turnaround.

It is expected that GM will detail some 20,000 job cuts and the closure of about a dozen plants by the end of 2010. The company has already said it will slash 40% of its network of 6,000 retail dealerships by next year and drop four of its brands — Hummer, Saab, Saturn and Pontiac.

The impact of GM’s bankruptcy, which follows a Chapter 11 filing by Chrysler on April 30, will ripple across the nation to dealers, suppliers and other businesses large and small that work in the sector.

The company, once the country’s largest private sector employer, has only a fraction of its former staff. Its 80,000 hourly and salaried U.S. employees are half the number it had as recently as 2001.

Nearly 500,000 U.S. retirees, as well as more than 150,000 of their family members, depend on GM health insurance and pension plans. Retirees will see cuts in their health care coverage, although the company’s underfunded pension plans are not expected to be affected by a bankruptcy filing.

In addition, some 300,000 employees at GM dealerships will be affected, as well as hundreds of thousands of workers at auto parts makers and other GM suppliers whose jobs depend on the company’s survival.

The future

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing would aim to help GM emerge with only its more profitable plants, brands, dealerships and contracts. GM’s unprofitable plants, contracts and other liabilities that the company can no longer afford would be left behind.

The government has already given GM $19.4 billion to fund operations and cover losses this year, and total help is expected to exceed $50 billion.

GM will pay back $8 billion of that sum. The government will also receive $2.5 billion in preferred shares of GM that pay a dividend and are more similar to a loan than stock.

But more than $40 billion of federal help to GM will be converted into the 72.5% stake in the new company. Taxpayers would make back the money loaned to GM if shares of the new GM increase dramatically in value following an exit from bankruptcy.

GM is expected to have about $17 billion in debt following bankruptcy, significantly less than the $54.4 billion it owed as of March 31.

(Source: Time & Green Car Congress)

Orders in Japan for Toyota’s new Prius hybrid have topped a booming 110,000, a major dealership chain said Saturday, in what is turning out to be a rare bright spot in the gloomy auto market.

The overall Japanese auto market has been languishing for years, with vehicle sales falling to their lowest level in more than three decades last year. Demand has worsened since the U.S. financial crisis sent this nation into a recession.  According to Green Car Congress, the Nikkei estimates that Japan passenger car production in fiscal 2009 will likely decrease to 1979 levels, mostly due to a plunge in exports. The projection, which was compiled based on automakers’ data and interviews with company officials, calls for the eight Japanese passenger car firms to assemble 8.21 million vehicles in the year ending in March 2010, 14% fewer than last year and the second consecutive annual decline, following a 15% fall in fiscal 2008.

(Source:  Autobloggreen & The Economic Times)

Ratan Tata has stuck to his words.  At the premiere for Tata Nano in the Auto Expo earlier this year, Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata had said: “By and large we’ve always been a diesel company so we will have a diesel version that will follow this (petrol) variant soon after.”   Now, after 203,000 firm orders, Indian automaker Tata found out that most buyers had opted for the more expensive variants of the Nano: only 20 percent of orders have been placed for the base model. The consequence is that Tata is experimenting with new strategies for the Nano, introducing new variants to make it even more attractive for the local market. One of the most important features will be the introduction of a new 0.8-liter diesel engine, developed by German company FEV.  According to sources in the auto industry, the small diesel engine will have fuel injection systems developed by Bosch, but the rest of the platform is being developed by Tata Motors and FEV.  A 3-door version hatchback Nano, an idea that was originally rejected, is also in the works. Plans for the European versions are, so far, unchanged, but will surely benefit from the diesel variant.