Porsche may end era of diesel engines
Porsche will decide at the end of the decade whether its latest generation of diesel engines will be its last, Chief Executive Oliver Blume told Reuters news service Tuesday. It marked the first time a German carmaker has said in public it could discontinue diesel.
Reuters said Volkswagen’s cheating on diesel emissions tests cast a shadow over its Porsche division and the sports car brand, which first introduced diesel in its Cayenne sports utility vehicle (SUV) in 2009.
“Of course we are looking into this issue,” CEO Blume said in an interview with Reuters at the Nuerburgring motorsports complex in western Germany. “We have not made a decision on it.”
Blume said Porsche would offer a mix of combustion engines, plug-in hybrid vehicles and purely battery-powered cars over the next 10-15 years.
Chickamauga funds boosted in Senate bill
A Senate appropriations subcommittee Tuesday approved a spending plan that would reverse budget cuts proposed by President Trump and provide one of the the biggest annual funding levels yet for work on the new Chickamauga lock in Chattanooga.
The Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee approved on a voice vote an appropriation measure that restores $1 billion to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that was cut from President Trump’s budget, bringing the Corps’ budget up to $6.2 billion – a record funding level. The bill makes full use of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund revenues for water infrastructure projects, including up to $78 million to continue construction of Chickamauga lock.
In the current fiscal year, the Corps has allocated $19.3 million of its $6.038 billion budget for work on the replacement lock at the Chickamauga Dam. The existing, smaller lock suffers from “concrete growth” and needs aggressive maintenance to stay open.
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the subcommittee, said the spending bill was drafted “in a bipartisan way” and “I look forward to the bill being considered by the full Appropriations Committee on Thursday.”