Norway to Ban gas motors? Wow...
 

Norway could ban gasoline-powered cars
OSLO, Norway, May 23 (UPI) -- Norwegian lawmakers are working on a proposal that could lead to a ban on the sale of gasoline-powered cars, a published report said Wednesday.

Ruling Labor, Socialist Left and Center party members of the Parliament's transportation committee have aired the proposal, and the Transport Ministry is determining if such a ban would be legal, Oslo's Verdens Gang newspaper reported.

"This is not a problem to arrange," Labor transportation committee member Truls Wickstrom said. "In Brazil over 80 percent of cars sold run on bioethanol."

"Most of the major car makers are banking on flexi-fuel," Wickstrom said.

A flexible-fuel vehicle, or dual-fuel vehicle, has two fuel tanks and can alternate between, for instance, gasoline and bioethanol, also known as gasohol.

Banning sales of gasoline-powered cars "would pressure the automobile industry into developing technology faster than it otherwise would," Center Party committee member Jenny Klinge said.

Verdens Gang offered no immediate comment from automobile or oil industry officials.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.:c:


And yet...

Automakers to rally against fuel standards
CHICAGO, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. automakers said proposed fuel-efficiency standards would cost billions and risk jobs if they had to stop making their biggest, most profitable models.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have scheduled a rally in downtown Chicago Thursday in the hope of developing grass-roots support of their position.

Hundreds of United Auto Workers members at Ford's South Side Chicago assembly plant and Chrysler's Belvidere, Ill., factory are expected to attend the rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza, The Detroit News said.

A similar rally with UAW members from all three Detroit automakers will be in St. Louis next Wednesday.

The automakers want to beat back a proposal passed by the U.S. Senate that would raise corporate average fuel economy mandates 40 percent to 35 miles a gallon for cars and trucks combined by 2020.

The rallies seek to build support for a measure sponsored by U.S. Reps. Baron Hill, D-Ind., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., that would lower the rise in mandates to 35 mpg for passenger cars by 2022 and 32 mpg for light trucks by 2022.

"The rallies give an outside-the-Beltway voice to our position that you can have improved fuel economy and protect jobs," GM spokesman Greg Martin said.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved:ph:

I want to bottle and export what ever they are drinking to our lawmakers in hopes that they will grow spines also. Or maybe the Norskies just have balls.