5.8 When will the emissions be "clean enough"?
Description
This article is from the Gasoline FAQ, by Bruce Hamilton with numerous contributions by others.
5.8 When will the emissions be "clean enough"?
The California ZEV regulations effectively preclude IC vehicles, because
they stipulate zero emissions. However, the concept of regulatory forcing
of alternative vehicle propulsion technology may have to be modified to
include hybrid or fuel-cell vehicles, as the major failing of EVs remains
the lack of a cheap, light, safe, and easily-rechargeable electrical
storage device [83,84]. There are several major projects intending to
further reduce emissions from automobiles, mainly focusing on vehicle mass
and engine fuel efficiency, but gasoline specifications and alternative
fuels are also being investigated. It may be that changes to IC engines and
gasolines will enable the IC engine to continue well into the 21st century
as the prime motive force for personal transportation [77,85]. There have
also been calls to use market forces to reduce pollution from automobiles
[86], however most such suggestions ( increased gasoline taxes, congestion
tolls, and emission-based registration fees ) are currently considered
politically unacceptable. The issue of how to target the specific "gross
polluters" is being considered, and is described in Section 5.14.
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