Though China enacted some pollution-controlling measures (we may have mentioned some of the issues around that) in the months prior to the Olympics (and I haven’t actually heard much about any pollution problems since the games started), the country is also making policy changes that will hopefully curb pollution in the long run. In a not-so-subtle nudge for Chinese consumers, the Finance Ministry is raising taxes on large cars, while simultaneously lowering taxes on small ones. From the Associated Press, as reported in The Detroit News:

The tax on passenger vehicles with engines bigger than 4 liters will be doubled to 40 percent from 20 percent, effective Sept. 1, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday in a statement on its Web site. Those buying vehicles with engines sized from 2 liters up to 4 liters will have to pay a 25 percent tax, up from the current 15 percent, it said.

Cars with engines up to one liter in size will have their tax dropped from three percent to one percent.

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It was a sad day for NYC greenies last week when we learned that Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan bit the dust. It seems the State Legislature pulled the plug on the plan in a secret meeting after it had been approved by the City Council in a 30-20 vote. The plan would have created an $8 “tax” on vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th street, reducing inner city congestion and its associated health risks, as well as creating approximately $4.5 billion in the next five years for the overstressed and under-funded NYC public transportation system.

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