“Emissions” does not equal greenhouse gases alone. Cars today ABSOLUTELY do have fewer emissions (especially of NOx and lead) than cars in the 1970s. NOx reduction would be huge, but for increases in vehicle miles traveled. But regardless, focusing only on CO2 is narrow minded.

Furthermore, increases in vehicle miles traveled cannot be blamed on oil companies or on car companies. Rather that blame falls squarely on the general public for their consumer and commuting decisions.

Let car companies sell whatever people want to buy. But people need to make responsible use decisions. I have a 4.2L V8 sportscar. BUT, I walk to work every day and drive my car less than 20 miles a week.

The New York Times has not been venerable for at least the last 2 or 3 years — Jeff Huggins has documented their perfidy and dealings with Exxon ads.

They are a disgrace, and are shooting themselves in the foot with this horrid immoral behavior right when they need to be moving to a better business model.

On their present course, they will disappear.

It is very late for such corruption of information to continue, as unfortunately displayed by the venerable NYT. Has fraud become the standard operating procedure of US big media and business?

http://climatechangepsychology.blogspot.com/ 2009/ 06/ new-york-times-is-worse-than-french.html

Title of blog post: “The New York Times is worse than a French whore and lies down for ExxonMobil the biggest polluter in the world and supporter of denialist lies”

If you want me to take it down, I will, but this has been going on for years, especially the last two years, and Jeff Huggins has pointed it out each and every time. Thank you, Jeff.

We don’t have time for polite niceties, and really I no longer see the need — the New York Times has not listened to any complaints about this, not one.

I found this data from the 1977 and 2001 National Household Transportation Surveys (close to 1975 and 2001 but not exact):

1977: Each vehicle traveled on average 10,200 miles/year and there were 120 million vehicles

2001: Each vehicle traveled on average 11300 miles/year and there were 204 million vehicles

You should be able to make your calculation now.

To Chaz, where do you think the GHG emissions exit the vehicle? Both GHGs and criteria-air contaminants (CACs) are exhausted through the tailpipe. So I don’t think you can make the statement that the picture “is clearly referring to the regulated tailpipe emissions from the vehicle.” The ad is then, as Joe and others have written, highly misleading.

- Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive;
- Advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and
- Advertisements cannot be unfair.

Hard, to me, to see how the Heartland ads or Exxon-Mobil greenwashing pass the “truthful and non-deceptive” clause, the evidence clause is, at best, only met via skewed processes, and as to “unfair” — don’t understand that.

Jeff, thanks for the helpful statistics.

That said, do you have access to the following info . . . ?

* The change (if any) in the average miles driven (per car) in the U.S.
* The change in the total number of cars on the road

Of course, the total CO2 emissions from automobile use in the U.S. in a given year would be roughly . . .

(Number of cars) X (avg miles driven/car) X (CO2 emitted per gallon of gasoline) / (avg miles/gallon)

The number of cars on the road has very little, if anything, to do with any “improvements” that ExxonMobil may or may not have come up with. The average number of miles driven in each car is more a matter of lifestyle and usage patterns, and again has little to do with any great magic by E-M — except that lower prices will actually increase usage to a degree, and higher prices will decrease usage, slightly. But, of course, E-M has not been trying to decrease usage by increasing prices, for the sake of the climate. Too, the amount of CO2 generated by burning a gallon of gas could hardly have changed very much at all, if at all. The amount of carbon in gasoline is “a lot”, as carbon is one of the two fundamental ingredients, of course, along with hydrogen, in hydrocarbons. And, the avg MPG figures have improved modestly, but these have much more to do with the auto industry itself, motivated by fuel efficiency regulations, than by anything that E-M would have done voluntarily and happily.

I’d love to know the trend (during the period) in the TOTAL CO2 emissions resulting from automobile use in the U.S. I’m sure the figures are readily available; it’s just that I haven’t had time to go after them.

Well, if you have any additional stats to share, please do.

Be Well.