Peter_XX: Thank You - Great Comment. The fact that you are using real information and not emotion is refreshing.

When left-leaning politicians propose new fuel taxes on gasoline/diesel, the response from the right is expected..... "no new taxes!", etc etc etc. The right is mostly right in that the left will most likely waste most of the proposed revenue on nonsense such as CAGW research, social justice "research", instead of new concrete/tar for roads. When any right-leaning politician dares to propose a tax on gasoline/diesel, the left will claim racism, anti-poor, anti-women, etc, etc etc. Stupidity on an epic scale. Gasoline/Diesel tax should be: [Cost of US National Road Infrastructure (Interstates/Hwys)] /[(Gallons/Liters) sold per year]. Multiply by an extra 10% just for good measure. Rule #1) All funds must go to road infrastructure (no crooked deals sending money to propaganda "environmentalist" think tanks). Rule #2) NO TOLLS ON US NATIONAL ROADWAYS God Bless America

D: Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. You have hit the nail on the head the way only someone who actually is in the auto-industry can. The only place I disagree is that the levels of harmful emissions allowances are needlessly low, especially in the case of diesel engines (NOx regs). This requires a ton of unnecessary hardware/software that is unreliable, temperamental, and expensive. Scott: Thanks for the snarky, needless comment. Obviously you've never been part of any vehicle development team or any other industry that deals with the nonsense of CARB.

Yes but I want a torque monster (besides a diesel) for a great price... (cake and eat it too)...

Not too long ago, I used to live in metro-detroit, way on the outskirts... I lived approximately 10km from work and I averaged 180-200km a day, between work, friends, family and graduate school. Welcome to Detroit, everyone drives a ton (on highway), a diesel makes a ton of sense (aside from the useless-political SCR system).

My mistake, I wouldn't "kill" for anything.... just a figure of speech..

ECI, I honestly could care less about whether a car is gas/diesel powered, especially in this day of super clean burning engines..... however... G**DAMN... the only profitable electric car (Tesla Model S) is just incredible. I'd kill to have one minus the whole $100,000 price..... (yes the base price is much lower, but go price one out to see the real price)....

Brotherkenny4, Obviously high energy prices are a detriment to western economies, however the flip-side is that when oil is very expensive (above $60ish/barrel), it promotes north American oil production that would otherwise be un-economical. Time will tell what the outcome of such prices are, however given the choice between $40 oil from Saudi Arabia or $90 oil from North American that supports a large number of jobs......... quite the debate...

**are the good guys**..... sorry

Harvey, This is because most people, on either side the the argument, aren't deeply involved in the "industry". We see this on both sides, especially the "regulate everything to death" crowd. At some point, as a society, we need to declare victory, and with regards to harmuful automotive regulations, that "victory" point was right before the insane NOx regs came into affect in 2010(ish). These regs that have essentially killed the diesel engine due to the necessity of urea-SCR systems. Notice how few diesel-hybrids there are... cost of needless aftertreatment.

SJC, The Keystone pipeline has been delayed due to politics and not science. That's why "decisions" about the pipeline are constantly delayed until AFTER the next election cycle. Political shenanigans at its best....

electric-car-insider, Funny, we appear to be flip-flopped, where my first love and education was electrical engineering and then I end up dealing with engines and emissions.... I am not sure about the OEM or company you worked for, but where I am, there is no cheating and the tailpipe emissions of our vehicles vastly meet and exceed regulatory levels, regardless of how overly-zealous the regulations are. On another note, I visited your website, you should keep it more current, it really has a great setup. (constructive advice, seriously, it is a good site and there aren't enough EV/HEV sites out there)

Tim, The media is nearly 100% hyper slanted towards the left wing. Trying living outside the USA during a presidential election cycle (as I did in 2012) while reading/watching US media, it is horrific how biased things are. For the record, I am still a registered democrat, so everyone, please spare me the jabs. Buffet and Soros and the "good" guys (according to the MSM). Quite frankly, I enjoy seeing them invest in fossil fuels, proving once again, there's nothing wrong with hydrocarbons.

SJC: This site is about many auto-related things. No where on the bylaws of this site are honest (industry) opinions banned. Electric-Car-Insider: You should schedule a visit to an OEM and see how few pollutants are emitted from a new gasoline/diesel vehicle. Until you can say you've done that, then I will just shelve your comments..... Where I work, tailpipe emission regs are king,and there's no funny-business around it....

SJC, I work in an industry that is 100% chained to CARB. It is a horrible mess. I have spent the better part of 7 years working on emissions monitors that are completely made up and nonsense, but must be satisfied due to CARB. After working for these years in this industry, I have changed my political party affiliation from (D) to (R). Obviously I cannot reveal too much, my company reads these sites and I would be fired for anything that contradicts the official party line. CARB serves no purpose whatsoever, if you read documents from NRDC, Sierra Club, GreenPeace, etc, you will see that they very often include the preservation of CARB as one of their top requests. You maybe did not read my entire previous comment, that the EPA should be in charge, not CARB. The idea isnt to gut necessary regulations, it is to give regulatory authority of national/international industries to national regulatory agencies. My previous comment did not mention anything about politics.... just FYI

SJC, You are right in that we (the USA) still import a large portion of our oil, however the goal should be to reduce our imports, and limit our imports only to trusted friends (ie Canada). Unfortunately, we have a political situation that is ardently opposed to rational energy policies. What can I say, elections have consequences.

John, I was a registered democrat who has recently switched parties, so please spare me the mindless political pandering. As an engineer and a civic minded American, I find it imperative to be a reasonable, technically minded person with regards to environmental regulation, while respecting states' rights. In my humble opinion, industries that are national or international in nature, should be regulated from a high-level (i.e. the EPA). Industries/activities that are local should be regulated by local authorities. Engine, automobile, aircraft, boat, etc manufacturers would fall into the realm of national (EPA) jurisdiction. Things such as backyard trashburing, local wastewater treatment, local powerplants, etc would fall into the jurisdiction of local (state) govt. Please check your political biases at the door. Insulting honest, hardworking people who are conservatives is not appreciated.

fred, The rub is, it has nothing to do with pipeline safety and all to do with the religion of global warming. I would love to see TransCanada refine the product to clean gasoline and diesel, and then re-apply for the pipeline permit. I would love it just to see the whackadoodle opposition. We would hear the same insane "safety" concerns, etc. Personally, if the pipeline is rejected by our *cough* state dept (obama), I'd love to see a small stretch of railroad built between the USA and Canada. A pipeline ends on the Canadian side, pumps oil into a train, the train travels 1000m into the USA where the oil is put back into a pipeline and shipped. Now that would be funny (and a sad example of extremist liberalism).

gor, Driving small cars doesn't mean less pollution. An average go-kart emits many, many more times the harmful pollutants than any large truck or SUV does. Harvey, No one is anti regulation. The crowd you are referring to are anti-NEEDLESS [regulations and/or regulatory details].

Here's an idea, Get rid of CARB and let the EPA handle regulatory matters that by their very nature, should be handled on a national level (vehicles, engines, etc). CARB is just a tool of extremist environmentalists to terrorize industry. If our glorious leader (obama) really wanted to "save the auto industry" like he always claims, he would have nixed CARB and instead, allowed the EPA to run the regulatory environment. Love it or hate it, the EPA does have a slight bit of oversight, whereas CARB is the definition of "the inmates running the asylum." But who am I kidding.... just wishful thinking....

Lasvegas, We have been told for the past 30 years that global warming was going to destroy us. They've pretty often cited 2010 as being the start of the end. So far, things are just fine. Al Gore stated in 2007 that within 7 years, there would be no ice on the north pole. That means that today in 2014, there would be no ice. Last I checked, things are just fine. And this is just 1 of many examples of CAGW hysteria being proven to be a farse.

D, I would make a comment here, but you already nailed it on the head. Well done, sadly, people with similar (logical) thoughts are few and far between.......

EP & Peter_XX, Now now guys, be nice!

A more complete picture of the aftertreatment architecture would be nice.

One of the absolute LAST things I want on any automobile I own is a stop/start system that is not an inherent part of powertrain design. In other words, if the stop/start system is an "add-on" item, I do not want it. If it is an integral part of the powertrain architecture like an HEV, then no problem. The thought is this, at idle, an engine burns almost no fuel. My specialty is with diesel engines, and the miniscule fuel consumption savings at idle conditions does not in any way warrant an obnoxious stop/start system. The last thing I want is an intrusive, annoying, expensive system whose only purpose is to satisfy unreasonable CAFE standards. The only place such a system may make sense is in countries like Greece where gasoline is approximately $10/gallon.