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Bridges, all of which have been disabled by u.s.-led air strikes. up next, what the start of the trump administration means for the u.s. economy. news from our fox affiliates. fox 2 in detroit, a second executive from volkswagen is facing criminal charges in the scandal over emissions testing. a top engineer is accused of programming diesel powered vehicles to turn on pollution controls during testing, then turn them off afterward. the company has agreed to pay $15 billion in penalties and reparations. fox 40 in sacramento, sacrament, california. weekend storms topple a famous pioneer cabin tr...

Matt, we'll start with you. you're out there in the thick of it. how sweeping are the pollution controls? they don't seem to be working. >> yeah, you know, these controls are everywhere. you can see them when you walk around the city. some of them are a bit more visual than others. let's show you one of them here. we're on top of the second road, one of beijing's busiest thorough fairs. and it's very, very rare at this time of day to see any space between the cars. one of the restrictions that has been put in place is by only allowing cars with even number license plates to be on the roads and...

In beijing schools and factories are closed. half of the city's cars are banned from the roads. some of the measures being enforced after the government issued its first ever red alert. that the highest high pollution warning. cnn's matt rivers joins us now live from beijing with the latest. it is 20 past 2:00 there on a tuesday afternoon. matt, how are the pollution controls working out? >> as you can see behind me not that well. so far. and it really is making life more difficult for people here in beijing. both to breathe the air and to deal with the restrictions. many people have taken to ...

It didn't happen by accident. >> mike, there is something in economics called the law of diminishing returns. in the '70s and '80s you needed pollution controls. the government agencies are so big they feed on themselves. they only exist to employ the bureaucrats. >> you look at the paint care program in california. that makes sense. paint manufacturers, recycled consumer paint so it doesn't get dumped. they go over board and stop the building of water storage tanks so they have a drought, they're in trouble. that's when they go too far. they have gone too far over the years. >> sometimes the ...

Years. and you do see this incredible boom in wind and solar, storage is starting to get cheaper and gas is cheap as well. it's not out of the question. you hear a lot about the coal industry has started this cold in the dark kpab campaign saying that we're going to run out of power without coal. but we had more blackouts before this renewables revolution. >> when you talk about what's cheap, that depends always on how you price it. there are different industries that might have a low price for what they are selling. but inject other costs into the community or environment, et cetera. how has ...