Hyundai-Kia Rated "Most Climate Friendly Carmaker" by UCS

A new report just released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which ranks the environmental performance of the eight top-selling car companies in the U.S., had some interesting findings.

The report measured both smog-forming and global warming emissions for the model year 2013. First, the good news: every one of the companies evaluated has improved their global warming emissions compared with their 1998 average. This was, no doubt, influenced by the more stringent fuel economy standards. Cars that burn less fuel also give off less pollution. Overall, smog-forming emissions dropped by 87% since 1998. Global warming (GW) emissions, which have become regulated more recently, have dropped by nearly 20 percent. This reverses a two-decade trend, from 1985 to 2005, when gasoline prices fell and Americans fell in love with gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles. A slumping economy, followed by a slow recovery, saw relatively little investment in more-efficient technologies, a trend that has finally reversed. Letting the marketplace sort itself out, as free market cheerleaders have suggested, did not adequately reflect the long-term urgency of the global warming threat. It was only when the new regulations became law that we saw significant changes occur.

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Image Credit: Shore Cellular: Flickr Cretive Commons

RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post. You can follow RP on Twitter, @RPSiegel.