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The Obama administration recently granted California the right to enforce its first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks, after announcing plans in May to boost federal fuel efficiency standards.  Thirteen other states will also implement the California emissions standard until 2012 when the U.S. government will adopt the California standards as federal law. 

The move will collectively slash emissions by 30 percent in 2016.

But California’s long overdue victory on emissions standards didn’t come without a protracted legal and public relations effort by the auto industry, which spent untold millions (billions?) trying to derail the California Clean Car program that would reduce global warming pollution from cars and trucks.

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For those of you haven’t seen the film Who Killed the Electric Car, the premise is quite simple and by the looks of things, it’s a premise that could repeat itself in the next decade or so.

While big automakers, like Ford, Toyota and GM hang a “hybrid plug-in” carrot in front of our collective nose, they’re fighting tooth and nail in California, and elsewhere, against stricter greenhouse gas emission standards for new vehicles.

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The Ford Motor Company, who has been criticized in the past by environmentalists for backing down from their alternative energy, vehicle development, announced that they would be selling plug-in hybrids in the next five to ten years.

This is the first time that Ford has announced a timeline for producing plug-in hybrids. The plug-in hybrid is seen as the best type of alternative energy vehicle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and gas consumption.

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Check out Gizmodo's review of the Honda Civic Hybrid. This is a no-brainer new car purchase, at 50 mpg with 140 horsepower, coming in at around $22,000 US ($25,000 CAN). Not to mention the huge savings in gas and tax exemption programs. No wonder Toyota and Honda are doing so well, while the Detroit automakers are still flailing their arms over Hummers and F150's.

For those out there who think going green means going backwards, please tell me where the hair shirt (or in this case seat-covers) is in the Honda hybrid?

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Today's reported auto-industry numbers, show just how backwards things have become in the fight to reduce oil consumption and reduce C02 emissions.

Yesterday, we reported here on the hypocrisy of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturer's fighting a Supreme Court ruling that could enact tough new CO2 emissions standards on cars and trucks, while stating at the same time on their website that, "Members of the Alliance believe that it is prudent to reduce emissions, including carbon dioxide…"

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Once in a while a great public information campaign comes along, and this one by the Rain Forest Action Network fits the bill.

At the Detroit Auto Show, they had a full-size Kermit the Frog complaining about it's involvement in Ford Motor Company advertisements. As DeSmog readers well know , Ford Motor Company promotes a very green image, while continuing to fund organizations, like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, that sow doubt about the realities of global warming.