AutoblogGreen

Yeah, he's got a point there.

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I'm just shocked that such a rational, completely understandable (and frankly obvious) law exists.

Major props to Norway.

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So. . . If you're Toyota, what exactly can you say about, for example, a Prius? I guess you can tout its fuel efficiency. I wonder if you could get away with showing it next to a polar bear? I wonder if you could get away with showing it in front of a green backdrop?

What was disturbing to me, in the original article, was that they won't even allow Toyota to advertise how little CO2 it produces. They said that mentioning CO2 alone would *imply* to consumers that it doesn't produce much nitrous oxide or other pollutants. I'm not sure I'd want a government agency restricting my speech on the basis of what implications they imagine somebody might draw.

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As much as people might hate to admit it, they're right. Cars aren't green. Manufacturing, mining, and driving are not green activities.

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Farming isn't green because they use petroleum -based fertilizers which cause CO2 to be released when it is made and put on the farm.
Leftover husks and dead plants provide enough CO2 for the plants to grow rather then being thrown in landfills.

Greener is green enough for now.

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Looking at the original source of this piece of news it seems this has been misquoted a bit.
It is correct that car manufacturers can't use inprecise words like "green", "envormentally friendly" unless they can document that the car from construction, sale display, use and finally discarding is significantly less enviromentally unfriendly than other cars. This as mentioned means using those kind of words is impossible. It might be possible for electric vehicles but would demand a lot of documentation.
You CAN say the car has low CO2 emissions though but that requires the car in question to be in the top 33% percentile in all 3 primary exhaust categories (CO2, NOX and particulates). And then we are talking about the top 33% of all cars not premium SUV category f. inst. This means the Lexus 600h which has lower emissions than other premium large sedans with big engines could not brag about lower emissions.
So in many ways the biggest change here is that big and heavy cars with big engines, but relatively speaking lower emissions can't use green marketing any longer.
Tony Belding: The implication theory is not supported in the letter to the car importers which is the source, rather that if they say they have low emissions they have to be lowest 33 percentile in all types. This is very relevant after Norway changed part of the car taxes last year and the result is that Diesels account for almost 70% of all new sales now and diesels increase NOX and particulate emissions for a reduction in CO2. Which is what most of the critic against the new CO2 component for the car sales tax has mentioned.

Cobos

Source: http://www.forbrukerombudet.no/index.gan?id=11040611&subid=0

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Then American politicians shouldn’t be able to use the words:

“investment” when they are referring to tax & spend or incurring new debt
“liberal, or progressive” when they are referring to old socialist policies
“conservative” when they are referring to Neo-cons who are really socialists.
“homeland security” when they are making rights & freedoms less secure
“reduction” when they are referring to “less of an increase”.
“defense” when they are referring to aggression abroad
“patriot act” when they are ignoring the US constitution
“federal reserve” which is no more federal than federal express.
“money” when referring to the US $Dollar “federal reserve” fiat debt instruments.
“free trade” which is costing us hundreds of thousands of jobs each year.

and so on…

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The Norwegians have always had their heads on straight. When I visited there in the mid-nineties, I found a society largely centered around common sense and hard work.

What a concept.

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I 100% agree with Tim's proposal.

Sounds like the Nordy government is just trying to force some truth in advertising instead of letting carmakers spin an ad to ride a market trend.

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I've always admired Scandinavians and this makes me respect them even more.

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