The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "auto emissions" ...
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NC Auto Inspection's-Failing the Test
Every year, North Carolina auto owners must take vehicles to private garages for state-mandated safety and emissions testing meant to prevent traffic crashes and curb pollution. Drivers cannot put a car on the road legally unless it passes inspection. A review inspection data showed the program is undermined by unscrupulous garages who do a volume business, passing unsafe cars, and by other who take bribes or cheat customers with uncessary repairs.
Tags: auto owners; emissions testing; unsafe cars
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Smokescreen
"This investigation probed Ontario's Drive Clean emissions testing program." The investigation found that the program forced millions of people to pay for unnecessary tests and achieved very dubious environmental benefits. The program is very flawed and corrupt, and doesn't even accomplish anything; the air quality benefits claimed by the government were based on discredited models.
Tags: environment; clean air act; pollution; auto emissions
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Trucks, Darlings of Drivers, Are Favored by the Law, Too
The Times reports on the enormous success of Chrysler's new SUV, Dodge Durango, and other light trucks. Auto dealers are happy to sell more; the consumers are happy to buy more. But what is the price of the deal? "If the Durango and most other sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and mini-vans were classified as cars, they would violate federal standards for pollution and gasoline consumption aimed at protecting the environment and conserving energy." The story finds that light trucks enjoy lower standards thanks to the combined lobbying muscle of dealers and manufacturers.
Tags: SUVs; light trucks; pollution; environment; gasoline consumption; global warming; emissions; GM; Ford; lobbying
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How N.J. auto test program failed
Records show managers downplayed or ignored warnings of problems with the state's new emissions project. Undertrained inspectors, software woes, staffing problems and breakdowns hurt the test.
Tags: auto-emissions test; Division of Motor Vehicles; DMV; N.J. DMV; emissions test; EPA
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E-Check Bribes
WJW-TV exposes corruption in Ohio's 100 million dollar auto emissions program. The probe raised serious questions about the credibility of what was thought to be a fool-proof testing procedure. The I-team caught e-ckeck testers soliciting and accepting bribes from motorists...in exchange for passing vehicles that would have otherwise failed. The series showed how testers were by-passing the state-wide computer system and compromising the testing process. (Nov. 13 - 15, 1996)
Tags: TAPE; Monday E-Check bribes Contest entry Environment Cars Air pollution FOIA 3 pgs.
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No title (id: 13134)
The Star-Telegram reports that after several years of relatively pollution-free summers, the 1 - million-plus residents of the four county Fort Worth-Dallas area breathed the decade's dirtiest air in 1995. At the same time, the Legislature in Austin moved to weaken a strict auto-emissions plan that it had approved in response to warnings from the Environmental Protection Agency. (Nov., 1995)
Tags: Baker Vaughn Roser Sanchez et. al The air we breathe Ozone Industry Fossil fuels EPA 47 pgs.
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No title (id: 10765)
"Company Spies" revealed a clandestine CIA program to help the American auto industry by spying on Japanese car manufacturers and passing the intelligence on to their U.S. competitors. Key technologies being investigated include the search for a chemical catalyst that will minimize nitrous-oxide emissions in lean-burn engines, ceramic engine technology, and batteries with significantly increased storage capacity.
Tags: Robert Dreyfuss; 7 pages
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No title (id: 8780)
Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader series looks at the burden placed on the environment by the rapid development of Branson, Mo., which has become a country-and-western music hot spot; Table Rock Lake is being polluted by sewage, air quality is diminished by auto emissions, landfills are overflowing, and waste is leaking into groundwater supplies, Aug. 16 - 18, 1992.
Tags: None
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No title (id: 6275)
WFSB-TV (Hartford, Conn.) reveals that Connecticut's auto emission inspection program was being undercut by emission sticker bootleggers who were removing stickers from broken auto windshields and illegally selling them, March 10 - 11, 1988.