Emissions scandals thread

Obelisk
Kinky.

In all seriousness, I don't think the horse idea will work at all.
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:lol:

Thankfully, I wasn't serious.

But then again...

http://bigthink.com/design-for-good/this-is-how-you-turn-cow-fart-gas-into-energy

vaca-inta-3.jpg


An all-in-one solution. Raise them. Work them. Breed them. Collect the methane. Eat them. Repeat.

Of course, I've gotten used to NOT wading through enormous piles of cow patties to get home (our city was an agricultural town thirty years ago), so there will still be drawbacks.
 
TexRex
It sure is. When CO2 displaces too much oxygen, fires are unable to breathe.

;)

*nudge*
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Reminds me of the increasing and more extreme forest fires that we get nowadays to be honest. Needs more Co2... maybe. ;)
 
LogiForce
Reminds me of the increasing and more extreme forest fires that we get nowadays to be honest. Needs more Co2... maybe. ;)
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In the US, the forest fire issue comes from fighting them, poor city planning, and poor management of budgets.

Fighting fires prevents much-needed, very natural, forest fires from clearing out land. As a result, the land that is prevented from burning just gets more over grown, and burns worse the next time. In the US we build neighborhoods right up to, in, and around forests. Homeowners don't give two shakes about whether or not their house is in a dangerous area for forest fires. They make sure they get insurance and call it a day. They figure their house is worth that much more because it's near nature. People like having a national forest as a back yard. That demand leads builders to build right up to areas that burn badly. When neighborhoods get leveled because they were planned right up into a fire area, the same builder comes back and builds it again.

Finally, mismanagement of budgets is another huge culprit. It is much more difficult to get decent fire fighting budget to take preventative/maintenance-oriented measures that will keep fires in check. It's far easier to rack up hundreds of millions of dollars of firefighting expenses when the fire is ablaze and people are fleeing their homes - so that's what happens. Gobs of money is spent fighting fires that are already raging beyond control.

It is one more thing government does badly.
 
The highest German court has just decided that cities are allowed to ban all pre-Euro 6 diesels. That's 3 year old cars.
 
The German minister of Transport has ordered Mercedes-Benz to recall 774000 Diesels in Europe because of possible tampering in the software.
 
I hope he gets handcuffs wider than his wrists so that he meets the criterion of being arrested but it's inadequate and contrary to what is legally required.
 
I wonder when, not if, hydrogen cars will be available as a replacement for diesel. Hydrogen technologies till have a few problems to figure out to make this technology competitive.
 
kikie
I wonder when, not if, hydrogen cars will be available as a replacement for diesel. Hydrogen technologies till have a few problems to figure out to make this technology competitive.
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I'd say it's a relatively long way off yet. At the moment the manufacturers are throwing money at Electric and autonomous tech. They need to do do that now because that's what they think the market is going to want/need over the next 15 years. Getting fully behind Hydrogen will require (IMHO) the oil companies to feel the pinch on sales from EV use, and respond by forging on with their own hydrogen infrastructure. I know some manufacturers are continuing to play with Hydrogen vehicles... but not at the rate they are with BEV's.
 
Hydrogen is simply a no-starter. There's no economical benefit in it, except, perhaps, as an alternative battery medium that ditches expensive lithium ion construction for even more expensive platinum.

Cracking methane to make hydrogen makes less sense than simply burning methane in an engine or converting it into easier-to-store synthetic gasoline.
 
Bild am Sonntag reports that there's evidence that VW, Audi and Porsche having been manipulating their petrol engines too.
 
Yesterday I read a Dutch article that Diesel is going to make a serious comeback using a combination of an active and passive catalyst and AdBlue reducing NOx to almost zero.

Almost zero is probably exaggerated but the emission will be much 8-times lower than what is allowed by European law.


Article in Dutch. I'm not sure if the information in this article is correct though.
 
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Mercedes-Benz is on the hook to pay $1.5 billion for emissions cheating.

Automaker Daimler AG and subsidiary Mercedes-Benz USA have agreed to pay $1.5 billion to the U.S. government and California state regulators to resolve allegations they cheated on emissions tests, officials said Monday.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency and the California attorney general's office said Daimler violated environmental laws by using so-called "defeat device software" to circumvent emissions testing. In doing so, the companies sold roughly 250,000 cars and vans between 2009 and 2016 with diesel engines that didn't meet state and federal standards.

The settlement, which includes civil penalties and still awaits court approval in Washington, will require Daimler to fix the already sold vehicles.

Daimler AG must repair at least 85% of the affected cars within two years and at least 85% of the affected vans within three years, justice department officials said. The company must also offer extended warranties to drivers on certain vehicle parts and conduct emissions tests on the repaired vehicles each year for the next five years.

"By requiring Daimler to pay a steep penalty, fix its vehicles free of charge, and offset the pollution they caused, today's settlement again demonstrates our commitment to enforcing our nation's environmental laws and protecting Americans from air pollution," said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen in a statement.

A separate class action civil settlement will bring a one-off charge of about $700 million, Daimler AG said. In a statement, the company also said settling the emissions allegations means Daimler does not admit any liability nor will the company have to buy back any of the vehicles in question.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mercedes-benz-emissions-cheating-1-5-billion-fine-daimler/
 
ROAD_DOGG33J
I wonder if that will have any effect on their willingness to continue racing in F1.
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Judging on their alacrity to pay the fine and continue access to the US market, I would guess no affect upon racing budgets. They are motivated by commercial success and advertising with successful racing surely contributes to that.

However, if their racing activities should bring about adverse publicity or disrepute to the sport, then slashing it from the budget would be done fairly rapidly, IMHO. The catastrophic accident at LeMans in 1955 is the best example of that.
 

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