Comment by COGlory | Hacker News Reader

Comment by COGlory | Hacker News Reader

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I ran into this in the real world the other day. Every year, the university I work at has raised parking pass prices (while slashing parking, but that's another problem). We've gone from $80 to $260 in the last 5 years. I recently bought a 2016 Hyundai Sonata hybrid with 180,000 miles. I found out that the university offers a 15% discount to parking passes for "low emission vehicles", presumably as some sort of incentive to fight climate change or something. They referenced a list of low emission vehicles that qualify, created by a third party called LEED:

https://greenercars.org/news/list-leed-qualified-cars

I made the mistake of scrolling through this list. On the list: 2022 M850i xDrive Coupe 4.4L V8. A vehicle of pure excess, entirely unnecessary, getting 20mpg while transporting like two people. Not on the list: my 1988 Ford Bronco with a 2.9L V6 that can haul cargo, move people and dead animals, drive off-road and gets ~20 mpg.

So in the eyes of the university and LEEDS list people, it would be better for me to ditch my perfectly functional 1988 vehicle and instead purchase a brand new 2022 V8 sports coupe. This is literally just a poor person tax.

It will end in the same way Cash4Clunkers did in the US: Poorly and hardly trying to hide the fact it's a government subsidy for the automotive industry at the expense of poor and middle class.

Exactly. ULEZ allows euro 6 diesels at 4-6L, but disallows euro 4 diesels at 1-2L. The emissions are worse by volume for the newer car.

If ULEZ and CAZ were serious about air quality they’d tax based on per passenger emissions, which would end up taxing the rich people in excessive luxury cars.

I mean neither of those cars would be on the road if we were serious about climate change, right?

I’m slightly confused by the existence of that list, USBGC provides LEED certification to buildings, not cars, right? Is it possible that someone at your university was tricked?

> I’m slightly confused by the existence of that list, USBGC provides LEED certification to buildings, not cars, right?

No, LEED credits are given to buildings for providing incentives for low-emitting vehicles.

https://www.usgbc.org/credits/new-construction/v2009/ssc43

I’m not sure why you started that comment with “no,” as we seem to agree?

Oops, cut off the quote too early, it was in response to "Is it possible that someone at your university was tricked?"

The list is real and it is part of a LEED standard. Technically it's compiled by ACEEE and just referenced by USGBC, but it's a real thing and not trickery.

Ok then, that makes sense.

I don't totally disagree, but it's tough to imagine a scenario where building and driving a new electric vehicle of the same capability as my 1988 Bronco is more climate friendly simply continuing to drive my Bronco a few thousand miles a year.

There must be more to the Universities use of that list. The list appears to rate all vehicles on fuel economy and emissions. It does not look like a list of "better" vehicles. The Ford Bronco Sport is on the list. The list only goes as far back as 1999, which is why earlier Bronco's aren't on the list. The BMW 850i is shown as having being among the worst in the "Green Score" column.

So, did the Uni specify that their discount applied to vehicles which got better than a certain "Green Score" according to that list? If not, then everybody is eligible for the discount, even Ford Bronco's if they're newer than 1999.

There's no listed requirement, other than that it must be on the list. The landing page for the list even says:

>A list of vehicles that meet the LEED Low Emitting and Fuel Efficient Vehicles requirements from model years 1998 - 2023.

If you have a Ford with the 2.9L V6 still going after all these years that is impressive. Between the oil pump only making 6 psi at maximum RPM and the cylinder head's including a design that was very likely to crack they didn't last long out on the road.

Also keep in mind, the emissions of pollutants is much higher from this older engine while the emission of CO2 is probably lower.

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