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Since the dawn of U.S. environmental law more than half a century ago, America has tried to reconcile its love of the automobile with its hope for a liveable future.And whether the battle was over the smog that choked cities, the toxic lead that poisoned millions or the carbon dioxide that is heating the planet, two of the nation’s most powerful industries were at the forefront of the effort to shape U.S. auto policy: the companies that made the vehicles and the businesses that fueled them.The auto industry and the oil industry both worked to slow regulation. But they also clashed with each other at times. Was the solution to require automakers to install pollution controls or to force refiners to pump out cleaner gasoline? In the end, after years of struggle and delay, the United States adopted rules to do both. And yet, those measures proved inadequate in the face of the inexorable advance of climate change.Now, the electric car has touched off what might be the ultimate lobbying battle for both the auto and oil industries. Carmakers are seeking to slow the pace of the Biden administration’s drive for cleaner vehicles. Oil companies are seeking to bring it to a halt.More of our coverage of the biggest story on the planet:
As a new report shows accelerating warming threatens 70 percent of the world’s workers, U.N. Secretary-General warns that wealthy countries expanding fossil fuel industries “are signing away our future.”
The first details of a potential, and possibly massive, climate agreement between the U.S. and China were announced at a climate summit at the White House on Tuesday. .
apel Hill, North Carolina's iconic college town, struggles to redevelop a