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Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by PythonicAlpha on Friday January 06, 2017 @07:26AM (#13335767)
One of the reasons, I am not proud to be a German, since it was/is my government (shame on them all!) that actively prevents real progress in the area of emission reduction of cars.

Reality is, that ADAC or TÜV years ago already warned, that EURO 6 cars may produce even more emissions than EURO 5 cars. So, decades of EU environment politics where just Potemkin villages to please German car producers.

Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by jjawssd on Friday January 06, 2017 @09:17AM (#13336300)
> my government (shame on them all!) that actively prevents real progress in the area of emission reduction of cars

how?

> So, decades of EU environment politics where just Potemkin villages to please German car producers.

???

Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by PythonicAlpha on Friday January 06, 2017 @09:40AM (#13336481)
Because they actively blocked (and still do) any attempts in the EU to release real-life regulations (not measure pollution in artificial environments, but on the roads!) -- for many years now. And still, they hinder that car buyers in Germany get the same compensation as US customers do.

The German news where full of it.

It is not helpful, when the labs are cleaner during car testing, but at the roads the people suffer from the pollution. VW is not the only brand, that optimizes the emissions for artificial environments.

Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by ifcho on Friday January 06, 2017 @09:41AM (#13336483)
Here is a nice article outlining the position of the German government and the big carmakers on electric cars:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/german-governme...

Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by tehabe on Friday January 06, 2017 @11:07AM (#13337369)
The car maker lobby VDA even says today that stricter emission standards are not needed. Btw, the chairman of the VDA is Matthias Wissmann, wo used to be the German transport minister.
Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by PythonicAlpha on Friday January 06, 2017 @11:39AM (#13337700)
The sad truth is, that we would not need stricter standards, if the current standards would be met in reality -- that would be much better than another EURO 7 or 8.

The other sad thing is, that the praised German car manufacturers are about to loose against new comers from the US and China. Good for the environment and the health of the people of course .... but how said Gorbatschow: "Who comes to late ..."

But that is the trouble: Our ministers all have their fallback positions in the industry. Just have a look at the former Schroeder government and what happened to those people.

Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by 08-15 on Friday January 06, 2017 @05:16PM (#13340803)
> Schroeder

The guy known as Gazprom Gerhardt, who coincidentally decided to phase out nuclear power? Yeah, sad story.

Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by tehabe on Saturday January 07, 2017 @05:34AM (#13343373)
IIRC he wasn't a big fan of the phase out. We had to force him. Also natural gas is mostly used for heating in Germany. Something the German nuclear power plants never could provide.
Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by 08-15 on Saturday January 07, 2017 @07:46AM (#13343879)
Actually, the (East-) German plant in Lubmin provided district heating for the city of Greifswald. It has been shut down and the district heating is now provided by---wait for it---a gas burner. NPP Gundremmingen, which is still operating, provides district heating on a somewhat smaller scale.

Besides, while most natural gas consumed in Germany may be for space heating and/or industrial heat, it also provides about 9% of the electricity, which is still a good chunk of money for Gazprom Gerhardt.

By the way, who is the "we" in "we had to force him"?

Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by tehabe on Saturday January 07, 2017 @02:45PM (#13346161)
The East German nuclear plants went offline pretty quick after the unification. And yes there are a few natural gas plants, they would actually much better now than those annoying coal plants which were build recently. They are faster and way more efficient. (faster in the sense that you can turn them on and off w/o much lag.)

The heating in Grundremming is new to me, only found a press release from 2012 in which is mentioned. Anyway.

We is the basis of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. In which there was a majority agains the usage of nuclear power for a long time now. It was part of the party platform in 1998.

Also it was his home state of Lower Saxony. The Wendland region was the centre of the resistance against nuclear power. And it was never about the safety of the plants itself but about what should we do with the radioactive waste. A question still unanswered to this day.

The issue in this discussion about Diesel and Gerhard Schröder is a different one. When he was Prime Minister of Lower Saxony and when he was the Chancellor, he always listened to the automotive industry. And this haunts us to this day.

Re:Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and ... by 08-15 on Monday January 09, 2017 @03:35PM (#13359546)
> They are faster and way more efficient

Either or. Combined cycle ("GuD") is more efficient than coal, simple cycle responds faster. But you'll never guess what responds the fastest---it's the large nuclear plants (http://www.mb.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/sites/Archiv/pdf/Sonderdruc..., p.10).

Waste should be recycled, unlike the wastes from fossil fuels, such as NOx, which have to be released into the atmosphere.

Anyway, at least we can agree that Gazprom Gerhardt was a crook.