"In the clean car battle, the oil industry leans on friends—including Donald Trump—to keep gasoline transport alive, while carmakers steer toward an EV future."
"Since the dawn of U.S. environmental law more than half a century ago, America has tried to reconcile its love of the automobile with its hope for a liveable future.
And whether the battle was over the smog that choked cities, the toxic lead that poisoned millions or the carbon dioxide that is heating the planet, two of the nation’s most powerful industries were at the forefront of the effort to shape U.S. auto policy: the companies that made the vehicles and the businesses that fueled them.
The auto industry and the oil industry both worked to slow regulation. But they also clashed with each other at times. Was the solution to require automakers to install pollution controls or to force refiners to pump out cleaner gasoline? In the end, after years of struggle and delay, the United States adopted rules to do both. And yet, those measures proved inadequate in the face of the inexorable advance of climate change."
Marianne Lavelle reports for Inside Climate News July 21, 2024.
SEE ALSO:
"Politically Charged: How U.S. Polarization Threatens the EV Future" (Inside Climate News)