In the U.S. electric bicycles, scooters and motorcycles have been the in the realm of fanatic aficionado’s for a long time. They’ve been available either by building your own or purchase through one of the few dealers. However they won’t make much effect on greening transportation until they’re widely available…
Ideally a program like the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) really would cause a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy security, reduce oil dependence costs, and increase energy sustainability. The program’s key is to incentivize replacement of inefficient cars with more efficient transportation choices. An earlier article (The Cash…
Got a clunker of a car you want to replace with a new one? There is a new law meant to address greenhouse emissions and energy security. The program incentivizes Americans to buy new fuel efficient vehicles to replace inefficient ones. Increasing the average fleet fuel economy in the U.S.A.…
It’s well known that burning diesel fuel emits many harmful byproducts with global warming and negative health effects. CARB studies show that diesel particulate matter contributes to premature death, lung cancer, decreased lung function in children, chronic bronchitis, respiratory and cardiovascular problems, asthma, respiratory symptoms, and is a potent global…
As an electric vehicle advocate (and owner) reading articles about the dangers of near-silent “electric” cars makes me puzzled. Are there that many electric vehicles on the road that it’s a significant danger? And is it the pedestrian who is totally responsibility for their safety? The answers are “no” and…
Caltrain is the rail service running between San Jose and San Francisco Tonight I am on my way to San Francisco for a meeting. Always when taking a trip I spend awhile analyzing ahead of time what’s the greenest way to get there. Can I avoid burning oil? Can I…
It always seems that fuel cell cars are 5-10 years away. Honda to Put Hydrogen FCX Concept into Production in 3–4 Years So, to have the announcement be a 3-4 years time frame is very interesting. That short of a time frame indicates to me they’re getting the tooling and…
Back a few years ago when California was mandating zero-emission-vehicles with a hard deadline, the automakers came forth with a few models. As a rule the automakers did a piss-poor job of marketing them, but even so there was huge demand for the cars (long waiting lists, etc) but the…
Honda CEO Outlines Three-Year Powertrain Technology and Fuel Economy Targets: This is an article summarizing a presentation by Honda’s CEO concerning their plans for further fuel efficiency gains. For whatever it’s worth, it shows they (Honda) have a lot of positive focus on fuel efficiency and the “emissions” problem. (Have…
A Dirty Little Footnote to the Energy Bill ( By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO, Published: April 15, 2005, NYTIMES.COM) This article concerns itself with a gasoline additive, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). The additive is the subject of a lot of support in Congress, partly because it is made from methanol, derived…
Here’s what happens when a couple geeks install a large solar panel array. They set up a web site to describe the details, including graphs of power utilization. http://www.solarwarrior.com/ My only question is – why do two people need a 36 kw array? The answer probably has to do with…
