Bicycles and Moonwalking Bears
This is kind of clever:
Maybe I'm a sucker for this sort of thing -- but it gave me a good chuckle.
Still, after thinking about it a bit, I wondered: can a clever ad really make cyclists safer?
Trouble for Clean Cars?
This is why I worry about using complementary policies to reduce carbon emisisons, rather than a firm and declining cap on transportation fuels. Take California's "clean car standards" -- a first rate policy if there ever was one.* As CNN reports, it isn't working out as planned:
California regulators have drastically cut the number of zero-emission vehicles required to be sold in the state by the year 2014, a decision that frustrated environmentalists but came as a relief to auto manufacturers. The rules adopted Thursday put the number of electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles that automakers sell in California at 7,500 by 2014 -- a 70 percent reduction from the 2003 target.
All too often, it turns out that even the best laid plans go awry. California and the 12 other states (including Oregon and Washington) that have adopted the same standards have staked a lot on the "clean cars" policy. If it turns out that the program doesn't work as planned, it could pose a big problem for the states' climate goals.
Now, I'm not saying that this setback is necessarily the fault of policymakers. Other forces may be at work too, including intransigent auto manufacturers. But that's sort of my point: good intentions are thwarted in the real world. This shouldn't surprise us; it's precisely the sort of bump in the road that we should expect.
After all, it's not like this is the first time that the standards have been weakened:
