Tesla Motors’ is having trouble selling the Model S in various US States laws because of laws requiring that cars can only be sold through franchised dealerships. Events this week made the trouble even more obvious when NJ Gov. Chris Christie’s administration (apparently) went back on a promise made to…
Thanks to the political situation in Ukraine, American politics is discussing using America’s “glut” of natural gas as a political weapon. The idea is to undermine Russia’s strength in natural gas supplies, by selling America’s natural gas into the world market, especially to critical countries most vulnerable to Russia, in…
Supposedly nuclear power plants are extremely clean – and certainly they don’t directly produce a “carbon” footprint, in the way that fossil fuels do. However, a few years ago we had Stanford Univ Professor Mark Jacobsen speak at the Electric Auto Association (Silicon Valley Chapter) about a study he wrote…
The crisis in Ukraine is getting truly scary, as in US-Russia are now almost directly in conflict. Stock markets are sliding, Russia is flexing its military might with an invasion of Crimea and military “exercises” on Ukraine’s borders, while the US and other countries have condemned Russia’s actions, threatened to…
Last week US Secretary of State John Kerry went to Indonesia and called Climate Change “perhaps the worlds most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.” I’m happy that someone in his position has said such a thing, especially following President Obama’s declaration in January that Climate Change is not debatable, it’s…
In North America, Japan and Europe, a little standards battle over fast charging connectors and protocols is brewing between the car makers. The Japanese carmakers are pushing CHAdeMO, the European and North American carmakers settled on the SAE Combined Charging System (a.k.a. Frankenplug), and Tesla is going it’s own way…
There hasn’t been a lot of news about Fracking protests in Romania, but what we’re interested in anyway is the higher level issues. Is the development of shale gas using hydraulic fracturing a good idea environmentally, economically, etc, and is it contributing to the destabilization of democracy in countries like…
California Gov. Jerry Brown recently declared California to be in a state of Water Emergency. Why? We are having great weather this “winter” with clear skies and warm temperatures – looking out the front window of the house where we live, and it looks summer. Normally California gets a lot…
The long-awaited environmental impact statement on the Keystone XL pipeline seems to clear the way for the approval of that controversial project, according to a report by the New York Times. Why? It’s what I’ve written recently. The oil companies are intent on bringing oil from the Alberta Tar…
In California, eVgo is beginning to build their charging infrastructure (finally – aren’t they a little behind schedule?) and the good news for BMW i3 and Chevy Spark EV owners is the infrastructure being built supports both CHAdeMO and Combo Charging System fast charging. But the situation just picks at…
According to a blog post on the Frack Off Romania website, the hydraulic fracking activity near Pungesti Romania is not the only fracking activities in that country. When I first started covering the anti-fracking protests in Pungesti, the activists claimed that Pungesti was the first instance of fracking in Romania,…
Green European Parliament MP’s from six countries (France , Germany , UK, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg) have sent an open letter to the European Parliament President, Martin Schultz, protesting government abuses against the citizens of Pungesti, Romania. I’ve covered these issues recently, but essentially the Romanian Government is throwing its…
General Motors is such a contradiction. On the one hand they create a beautiful car like the EV1, then on the other hand they crushed it in favor of selling Hummers (via the Hummer Tax Credit). On the one hand they’re building the Chevy Volt, selling quite a few of…
Buried among my last report on anti-fracking protests in Romania I’d reported on another village, Izvoarele, near Galati Romania, where fracking had already occurred in secret. According to a report on the anti-fracking protesters website, Frack Off Romania, the only reason the fracking was discovered was because of a series…
I want to answer – why am I covering the story of hydraulic fracturing protests in Pungesti Romania? I normally cover electric vehicles, why am I suddenly covering fracking in Romania? To me these issues are tied together. Generally speaking, hydraulic fracturing is a symptom of Peak Oil. The resources for “conventional oil”…
