In June 1989 President Bush proposed sweeping revisions to the Clean Air Act....(T)he President proposed legislation designed to curb three major threats to the nation's environment and to the health of millions of Americans: acid rain, urban air pollution, and toxic air emissions. The proposal also called for establishing a national permits program to make the law more workable, and an improved enforcement program to help ensure better compliance with the Act.

By large votes, both the House of Representatives (401-21) and the Senate (89-11) passed Clean Air bills that contained the major components of the President's proposals. Both bills also added provisions requiring the phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals....The Senate and House bills also added specific research and development provisions, as well as detailed programs to address accidental releases of toxic air pollutants.

....The President received the Bill from Congress on November 14, 1990 and signed it on November 15,1990.

"Instead of plucking numbers out of the air, we should base policy on science and expert reviews of factors like affordability of technology, availability of low-carbon fuels and the state of the electric infrastructure."

• Transportation consumes more than 70% of the 19 million barrels of oil used daily in the U.S. One barrel holds 42 gallons, meaning that we use roughly 557 million gallons of oil for transportation each day.


• The BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico - that's just over a quarter of the amount of oil we use in the United States each day.


• Fully one quarter of our nation's roads and bridges are in disrepair, and the Highway Trust Fund, which is financed by the gas tax to take care of our roads, no longer has enough money to cover the costs.

The primary conclusion is that electrification of transportation significantly reduces petroleum energy use, but GHG emissions strongly depend on the electricity generation mix for battery recharging.

This summer, we’ve witnessed the 10-day traffic jam in China, the million-gallon Enbridge pipeline oil spill in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and, of course, ongoing efforts to clean up the BP oil disaster in the Gulf.

Traffic. Oil spills. What do they have in common? Both are at the core of our transportation system in the United States, a system which leaves us dependent on cars to get around, drains as much as $1 billion from our economy each day, and keeps Americans stuck in traffic for 4.2 billion hours each year while wasting 2.8 billion gallons of gas.

We know that America can do better. We need a 21st century transportation system that enhances our national security, economy, environment and quality of life. So the Sierra Club is launching a new network of Transportation Activists, the Club's front line on creating a 21st century transportation system in the United States.

Sick of traffic jams and oil spills? Want to learn about and take action on national transportation issues like ending our dependence on oil, expanding public transit, and promoting the development of walkable and bikeable communities? Sign up to be a Transportation Activist here and join the movement.

Outside Beijing, there was an epic 60-mile traffic jam described as a "standstill" that went on for a week and a half. Vendors gravitated toward the jam to sell food and items (and static drivers complained about being gouged.). It was so bad that the traffic jam morphed into "some kind of makeshift settlement." (What do you tell your boss in this scenario? "Sorry I was late to the meeting. I got tied up...")

Beijing is used to traffic horrors. According to Foreign Policy, "Despite the city's six surrounding ring roads, numerous expressways, and the government's restrictions on car use, urban planners simply can't keep up with the massive influx of new cars that many of Beijing's approximately 20 million increasingly wealthy people (many of whom have never driven a car before) have recently bought."

It's as good a time as any to dust of the ol' bike. And it's an opportunity to plug our tips here, here, and here on becoming a bike commuter. Save money, get healthy, lower your carbon emissions, and avoid scenes like this! Get more info here on Sierra Club's Green Transportation program. (Sign up to be a transportation activist.)

(Image via BoingBoing, which has links to photos of the jam in China.)

Demand will soon exceed supply: (Forbes) EV expert Chelsea Sexton says that by "2011 there could be 40,000 to 50,000 cars on the market, but as many as 200,000 early adopters waiting to snap them up. A big challenge will be getting the cars to the cash-in-hand customers, which is why the automakers are carefully selecting their early sales markets.

Chelsea's message is also that building a good electric car is not enough. If customers have a frustrating experience with their dealership and service network, they could abandon the brand, or even electric vehicles entirely.

Cars that drive on hemp: (Autobloggreen) Motive Industries has announced that they will unveil Canada's first bio-composite-bodied electric car this September at the EV 2010 VÉ Conference and Trade Show in Vancouver. Dubbed the Kestrel, the four-passenger compact forgoes some of the traditional fibers used in composites for a green car (*ahem*) technology that is renewable – hemp.

E-trucks: (Earth2tech) Smith Electric Vehicles U.S., an electric truck and van maker based in Kansas City, Mo. and backed by $32 million in stimulus grants, has become the great green hope for its loss-making parent company, the UK’s Tanfield Group. Tanfield has decided against divesting itself from Smith: an option that was on the table earlier this year, before Smith saw its government funding more than tripled and jumped into the limelight with a visit from President Obama.

India, like many rapidly industrializing nations, views development in large part through the prism of Western experience. As a result, it has become nearly axiomatic that as economic development progresses and a prosperous middle class emerges, consumption for a range of consumer goods increases. Of these, arguably none are more preeminently American than the automobile.

Much hype has surrounded India pursuing an American style development trajectory with the release of an affordable car for the masses -- Tata’s Nano. The implications of this trajectory have lead to predictably similar automobile, oil, security complex. India currently imports over 70 percent of its oil supply from the Persian Gulf -- primarily Saudi Arabia and Iran -- a situation requiring a significant naval presence. Sound familiar?

In the countries financial capital, Mumbai, which boasts a population of somewhere near 20 million residents, a sea-link (a short bridge) was recently built to allow suburban dwellers in the Bandra neighborhood to quickly and easily drive to the Business district in Worli. The project cost around $355 million and will primarily benefit the less than 3 percent of residents who travel to work by car. In contrast, an estimated 48 percent of Mumbai’s population walks or bikes to work. The rest rely on the cities trains and buses which are notorious for their super dense crush load, none of which will be helped by the costly sea link.

In Delhi, with a population of 18.5 million, over 23 percent of land is devoted to accommodating vehicles – which are parked 90 percent of the time. Today two wheelers carry only 20 percent of commuters yet take up nearly 90 percent of road space. Indeed the high costs of cars are convincingly elaborated by Sunita Nurain of the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) in a recent Times of India Op-Ed.

Finally, of course, there is transportation impact on climate change. In the United States, transportation accounts for 27 percent of greenhouse gas emissions -- 33 percent of which came from personal cars. India on the other hand has only 12 motor vehicles per 1,000 people compared to the US figure of 765, not to mention a population nearly four times the size.

With a myriad of daunting issues it is clear India must follow a different path. Luckily, however, it need not look far for examples of development alternatives. In fact, Delhi is now leading the nation towards modern public transportation with its new metro. Ultimately, the world desperately needs countries like India to uphold a new vision of development. A vision that promotes people, not vehicle, centered urban development in order to sustain and nurture the legitimate aspirations of billions around the world.

Those of you who listen to Ira Flatow's "Science Friday" on a regular basis know how good the show can be. Tonight was especially good as Ira had Mark Perry of Nissan and Tony Posawatz of GM on as guests. Both talked of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt respectively.

I urge you all to listen to this show. Intelligent questions were asked by Ira, along with several callers, and both Mark and Tony were spot on with their answers. Best of all, they were collaborative.

Each car represents a different market niche, and both are needed. Twenty years from now, virtually all vehicles sold will be either fully-electric or some variation of plug-in hybrid.

Rather than trying to one up each other, they spoke of the relative merits of each car. I detected mutual admiration from both parties since they seemed to understand that this is more about electricity vs. gas than Nissan vs. GM.

The sleek Leaf knifes through the air.



The Volt holds Bruce Tucker's upright bass with room to spare.

The state of Colorado and the bicycle have an interesting relationship. On the one hand, Boulder and Denver are considered exceptional bike communities. (And along those lines, the state has excellent renewable energy goals.) But then again, there's a Colorado town government that has banned bikes. People who pedal through can get a ticket.

This is reflected in the debate going on this week at the National Journal, which asks, "Will Bicyclists And Pedestrians Squeeze Out Cars?"

It's the wrong question, of course, because car-centric America is still very much in place. Hairline fractures have only begun to be visible because the old-fashioned approach to traffic management - build more roads - doesn't seem to work for long. Even worldwide, motorists find traffic more intense and stress-filled than ever.

At the National Journal debate, Oregon's Representative Earl Blummenauer says motorists should be thankful to see people walking and biking on the street because it means less cars congesting the road they are currently driving on. Obviously many in Colorado don't see it that way.

The entire blogosphere has joined in the fun of ridiculing Colorado gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes, the one who thinks that bicycles are a sinister U.N. plot. Just don't tell him about Jose Antonio Viera Gallo, the Chilean socialist and bicycle aficionado cited by Matt Yglesias:

Expounding on the sentiment, Viera Gallo had this to say:

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.

If socialism can only arrive by bicycle, don't expect to wait long before you hear that only socialists ride bicycles.

In other Maes news, a commenter wonders what kind of car he drives. The answer, Mr. Google reveals, was a 1993 Mitsubishi Diamante (before he wrecked it) and subsequently a 2005 Chevy Impala. Turns out that Maes' driving habits have caused him a bit of trouble -- to the tune of $17,500 in fines he had to pay to settle a campaign finance violation for paying himself $42,000 in mileage reimbursements. Alan Prendergast at Westworld worked that out to be about 90,000 miles, at current IRS reimbursement rates. Imagine how long it would take to cover that much distance on a bicycle!

Did you ever stop to think about how many bicycles have names that are not quite American? Pinarello. Colnago. Bianchi. Cervelo. You get the idea--lots of them are downright European. Dan Maes, a Tea Party candidate for governor of Colorado, is right on it. Maes has identified the bike sharing program that Denver mayor John Hickenlooper helped start to be a United Nations plot:

Maes' proof is Denver's membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an association of local governments that provides information, training, and technical support for sustainable development initiatives. Some 1200 communities around the world are members, including 600 in the United States. You can tell which ones by all the people riding around them in bicycles. (H/t Think Progress, Eschaton.) (An earlier version of this post mistakenly referred to Maes as a Denver mayoral candidate. The post has been corrected.)

I had a chance to drive the fascinating Tesla Roadster this past weekend. In a word, it was, well, electrifying. The power and performance of a Lotus Exige, without the noise and pollution. More on this in a moment.

We were at a special "Bastille Day" event held by L.A.'s Petersen Automotive Museum in Malibu. Everybody dressed in white, great cars were everywhere, and Tesla was offering demo drives to this select group of automotive opinion leaders. In case you've not heard of Tesla, it is a Bay Area startup run by CEO Elon Musk, who made a couple hundred million by selling his previous Big Idea, PayPal. Tesla plans to build an electric car that will be affordable, but the initial product really is not. It sells for about $125K, plus extras such as the deluxe charging station, sport package upgrade, etc.

Let's evaluate the car first, not the price. It is based on the Lotus Esprit chassis, or platform as the car industry calls it. I have always loved the Lotus and confess to taking a special Lotus driving school in my previous life. As fast cars go, it is very lightweight, gets close to 30 mpg, corners like a mother, runs zero to 60 in less than five seconds and does this running a four cylinder Toyota engine. It is also very hard to get in and out of, has little storage space, poor visibility and is not very practical as a daily driver.

There was a rumor recently that Telsa had converted a new model of Toyota's popular RAV4 into an EV. Toyota announced Friday that Tesla will supply the drive train for a resurrected RAV4 EV, possibly to be built at the recently purchased NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA. This is the giant 5 million sq. ft. plant that was the subject of a fascinating story on This American Life in March.

This is really good news for the EV community since the RAV EV has been the most reliable EV from the ZEV mandate days of the late 90s and early 2000s. It also gives consumers a great option if what the family needs is a reasonably sized vehicle that can haul stuff. Both the Nissan Leaf and GM Chevy Volt are great cars, but there is clearly a market for SUVs out there.

Here we are taking possession of our brand new RAV on winter solstice, 2002.



Our experience with the RAV has been nothing short of amazing. The car just works. Other than replacing the shocks at 60K miles, and consumables like tires, aux batteries and wiper blades, there has been virtually no maintenance or parts in 8 years and 84,000 miles.

Some RAV drivers have had their battery packs replaced, but they averaged about 120,000-130,000 miles before doing so.

I can't tell you how many times I've plugged my car in at a public charger and had people engage me in a long conversation about what this vehicle means to society and then express the burning desire to get one just like it. It's happened hundreds of times over the years and each time, I had to tell them, nope, can't do it, they destroyed hundreds of them, and the remaining 800 or so RAV EVs are all there would ever be.

Now I can tell them to wait a year or so and they'll not only be able to buy a RAV EV, but it'll be powered by a Tesla drive train with, we can assume, a LiIon battery pack. We don't know pricing or performance specs, all that will come in due time, but the importance of this announcement is that Toyota is getting back in the EV game. We'll have to update Plug In America's vehicle tracker page to list this popular model.

This leaves Honda as the lone hold out. They are still claiming their Clarity fuel cell vehicle is the end game of alt-fuel vehicles. But as more and more EVs are announced for delivery in the next two years, it seems as the game might end with fuel cell vehicles forever in the on-deck circle, never getting a chance to step up to the plate and bat.

One thing I noticed is, when you drive across the country, you see a lot of wind farms. But you don’t see any signage about what they’re doing. When you drive across Kansas, there’s nothing to look at. And suddenly there are 100 2-MW turbines gracefully sweeping through the air. And I want to know some real information. Give me a sign with some numbers. So we’re going to look at what it’d require to get signage, kind of like what you see on freeways, similar to those signs you see that say, "This section of highway is cleaned by the Kiwanis Club."

Using the language of climate change has become political. So anyone critical of politics is going to look at the whole conversation as a political one and not science-based. So after that we chose to stay away from that language. What resonated was talking about green jobs, especially with the oil spill. We'd talk about the potential of wind and solar.

But with the rise of EVs the company is working on modifying the design to function as vehicle charging stations. That would potentially create a harmonious renewable system (like this one) of PVs and EVs, independent of crude oil and coal power plants. And it would add a purposeful element to these empty, destitute masses of land.

To the Editor:

The Column notes that fuel cell technology, while promising, is unlikely to be viable for decades. We have just taken possession of our new Toyota RAV4 EV, an all-electric car that we will charge with power generated from our rooftop solar panels.

Our new car will easily accelerate up to 80 miles and hour and travel 100 miles on a single charge. Installing a charger at work would give the car a traveling range of 200 miles. More than enough for most folks.

The column says we must cut our dependence on foreign oil. I strongly agree that self-sufficiency is a laudable goal. However, while auto companies go on searching for their fuel cell holy grail, we'll be cruising the streets and freeways of Southern California in a 100 percent pollution-free vehicle using technology that's been around for over a century.

Paul Scott
Zan Dubin Scott
Santa Monica, CA , Dec. 23

Within two weeks of this letter, we organized our first event drawing some 50 EV drivers to our quiet street in Santa Monica. That's when we started meeting all these other activists, some of whom had been working on the issue for a few years. In our naivete, we thought a few protests and a concerted letter writing campaign would suffice to save the EVs from destruction. Boy, were we wrong!

The crucial California Air Resources Board (CARB) meeting of March 2003 stunned us. In spite of overwhelming support by the drivers of these EVs, the Board acquiesced to the demands of the car companies to kill the battery EV in favor of this promising new kid on the block, the fuel cell.

George Bush proclaimed in his 2003 State of the Union speech, “With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free.”

When I heard George Bush say this, it occurred to me that a child born before the Civil War was able to drive a battery EV since that technology dominated the cars of the 1890's. Well, the kids born in 2003 are now seven years old, still a ways from driving age, but much has happened in the intervening years. Virtually all the car companies have announced plug-in vehicle programs (Honda, where are you?), and we're on the cusp of seeing thousands of Leafs and Volts on the roads.

Just this week, Tesla held a very successful IPO becoming the first electric vehicle company to do so. And on Wednesday, Zan and I were invited to see the gorgeous Fisker Karma at the local Santa Monica Fisker dealer. In this picture, newly minted Phd., Shannon Arvizu ("Miss Electric"), joins us in celebrating the moment.


So, as the oil continues to gush into the Gulf, billions of dollars continue to gush out of the country to buy oil, and our Congress continues to gush over oil companies' largess to campaign coffers, the only good news is that, with each spin of the Earth, we get closer to the day when we no longer have to participate in all of that.

Suburbia ain't what it used to be--or what it could be: fun, attractive, and sustainable. That's the message from Atlanta architect Ellen Dunham-Jones in this engaging TED talk (h/t to Ezra Klein). (It runs almost 20 mintues.)

"The big design and devlopment project of the next 50 years is going to be retrofitting suburbia. Whether it's redeveloping dying malls, reinhabiting dead big-box stores, or reconstructing wetlands out of parking lots, the growing number of empty and underperforming retail sites throughout suburbia give us a tremendous opportunity to take our least sustainable landscapes right now and convert them into more sustainable places."

One big challenge: "underperforming asphalt"--the huge parking lots around defunct malls. Dunham-Jones cites an example in Minnesota where a lot was torn up and restored to the wetland it once was. The result? People wanted to live nearby, sparking private investment in homes. "It restored the local ecology and the local economy at the same time."

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we've talked and talked about the need to end America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires...We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.

We're guessing that you all are just like us here at the Sierra Club - you feel frustrated and helpless looking at all these terrible BP oil disaster photos.

The 5th Annual National Dump the Pump Day on Thursday, June 17, will give people the chance to make a statement in support of public transit and its ability to help our country reduce its reliance on oil...(T)he National Dump the Pump Day is a public awareness day that highlights the benefits of public transportation.

Public transportation is part of the solution for our country attaining energy independence as U.S. public transit ridership saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline annually. By using public transportation on June 17, people will be able to show their support for public transportation and also for our nation's goal of energy independence.

In addition, riding public transportation can help people save money. The most recent APTA Transit Savings Report showed that on the average, an individual can save can more than $9,000 a year by taking public transportation instead of driving a car.

More than 100 public transportation systems are participating in National Dump the Pump Day activities this year.

There's a whole new class of small, highway capable electric cars preparing to enter the American auto market. These "City Cars", exemplified by the Mitsubishi iMiEV and Mercedes' Smart car, are designed for commuters who are in need of good, inexpensive vehicles that do the job of transporting to and from work while using a minimal amount of energy.

Norway's Think (sometimes written as "Th!nk") is making a strong push for the American market with their recent announcement that they are building a manufacturing plant in Elkhart, IN near Enerdel, the battery manufacturer they have chosen to supply the 24 kWh packs that will power the cars.

Eight Plug in America members were recently asked to come to the Orange County offices of Think to test drive the latest version of this highly efficient EV. Linda Nicholes, past president of Plug In America, has written a great blog on the test drive, so I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that the Think impressed me with its overall performance and handling. It's very similar to the iMiEV in most all respects, and if both are priced appropriately, i.e., a few thousand lower than the Nissan Leaf, they'll sell very well.



Think isn't ready to announce a price yet, but they should by the end of the year. As we get into the era of expensive oil, city cars will gain an ever larger share of the market. Easy to drive, easy to park, and they use minimal energy to get the job done. Total cost of operation will be very low relative to even the smallest of gas burners.

(Like what you read? Visit my blog EVs & Energy.)

Let's take a quick break from the BP calamity to point to something fun.

Our panel of judges has picked from 330 entries the finalists for the bike-ku contest here on Climate Crossroads! These three entries have been sent to Rep. Earl Blumenauer's office, where the congressman will select the grand-prize winner. The grand prize is a Breezer Uptown 8 bicycle. The other two finalists will get a Kryptonite lock and a Nutcase helmet.

Rep. Blumenauer, an avid bicyclist, is founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus. He is also the author of H.R. 4722, which supports safe walking and bicycling in our communities.

Take a look at the finalists and leave a comment if you want to voice your opinion.

Fenders From Heaven
by Lisa Benham

Needing groceries
Wet backside or carbon spew?
Fenders from heaven

--

rideofsilence
by Dawn Huss

Rhythmic and soothing
tick tick tick tick tick tick tick
freewheeling love song

--

One Tweet Ride
by gojaimie

I don't know why i
try to fly, 'cause i sing best
on some handlebars

[ editor's note: On Earth Day, Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, left the Bay Area on electric bicycles on a cross-country adventure. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We are posting some of his writings here.]

We woke early to grey and threatening skies with weather reports predicting rain. Before 7, we were on wet roads with occasional rain showers but we did manage to dodge most of the bigger raindrops.

Our map pointed out the Gothic House painted by Grant Wood. It was a 15 mile detour so I wasn't too excited about seeing the house until the road we were supposed to take turned out to be closed. The Gods were guiding us again!

We took great photos at the house and pushed on arriving in Fairfield about 11:30 where our host, Stuart Valentine invited us for lunch on the town square. In preparation for our evenings activities, we chased around getting prepared and trying to relax a bit by taking a wonderful swim in the pond at the bottom of Stuart's property.

The Fairfield Art Walk is a monthly event that takes place on the Fairfield square. We arrived in time to participate in the largest one of the year and the theme was 'All Things Italian'. The only thing Italian about us is the shade of our overexposed to the sun skin.

The square was hopping. All the shops were open. Food, art and entertainment opportunities were set up all over the square and there was a sustainability theme as well. We were very busy talking and talking about the bikes, our trip our reasons for doing what we are doing and dealing with folks who wanted to ride the bikes. Rolf was very busy talking to people as well and I think the conversations he had improved both his English skills and his knowledge about the electric bikes.

Fairfield is a very interesting town. Over 35 years ago the Maharishi movement bought an old campus and moved its headquarters here. Since then there has been a slow but steady blending of the "meditators" with the local farming community. Obviously, there are huge differences between the two cultures but over the years acceptance has grown. It was very easy to see at the Art Walk who the Maharishi folks are and who the other folks are. The town has more recently begun to attract people who like the culture here because of the diversity and the commitment to sustainability that is part of the Maharishi culture. Our host, Stuart is a mediator but not a blind follower of the Maharishi culture. His insights and observations about the community make for great stories and we really enjoy hearing about the integration that is happening as Iowa looks for ways to reinvigorate its economy via green jobs like wind turbine manufacturing.



Swinging on the swing bike.



Catherine and I doing a radio interview at the local solar powered radio station.



Talking electrics with Mark Stimson, Fairfield's electric vehicle guru.

[ editor's note: On Earth Day, Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, left the Bay Area on electric bicycles on a cross-country adventure. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We are posting some of his writings here.]

After an early start and farewell to the Kansas Bocks, we rode the two miles into Nebraska where we immediately picked up a tailwind!! What a difference. We got to Rock Port in less than 3 hours (over 50 miles) and spent almost 3 hours with Eric Chamberlain, the local man who got the Rock Port owned utility to agree to install 4 large wind turbines that feed directly into the local grid.

We wanted to video Eric but he said that he has a face for radio and didn't want to be filmed. Rolf took lots of pictures so that and our memories and the notes that Catherine took will have to describe what we learned today. I called Eric from the Rock Port City Park and he cam out and we talked for a while about Rock Port's history as a town that not only has its own utility but also has its own phone company. Rather unique for a small town of 1500!

The Climate Crossroads Bicycle haiku (bike-ku) contest ends Monday. It's easy to enter! All you have to do is join the Bicycle group, post a picture, and paste in a haiku. Since May is National Bike Month, the contest is all in good fun. But there are some serious prizes.

The top prize is a Breezer Uptown 8. And two runners-up will get a Nutcase helmet and a Kryptonite lock. Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, an avid bicyclist and author of H.R. 4722, the Active Community Transportation Act, will choose the grand prize winner. A panel of bike happy Sierra Club staffers will select the finalists next week.

Go ahead and enter our Bike-ku contest, but don't end up in court like these dudes on account of our contest. (It's pretty funny watching Judge Judy grapple with the price of this stolen bike -- check it out at the four-minute mark.)



(Via Gawker.)

(From the ICLEI USA Local Action blog; by Rena Ragimova)

On Earth Day. April 22, 2010 Denver, CO launched the first U.S. citywide B-cycle bike sharing program. The program has been popularized in over 50 cities Europe and Asia and has recently started making its way to North America. B-cycle members can pick up and return their bike at over 500 B-cycle stations around Denver and surrounding areas.

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, left the Bay Area on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some of his writings here.]

1. Stop the gusher
2. Now is not the time for new drilling
3. Make the Gulf communities and environment whole
4. Demand more accountability and transparency from government and industry
5. End dependence on oil and move to a new clean energy economy

• Margie Alt, Executive Director, Environment America
• Lt. General John Castellaw, US Marine Corps
• Gene Karpinski, President, League of Conservation Voters
• Mindy Lubber, President, Ceres
• Kevin Knoblach, President, Union of Concerned Scientists

Announced Thursday, the hooking up of Tesla with Toyota took everybody by surprise. As part of the deal, Tesla is buying the giant NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA. This facility has an interesting history as told in this excellent piece from This American Life. Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, lusted after this plant early in the search for a manufacturing plant for their Model S, but the size of the plant at 5.3 million sq ft was too much for his needs. With Toyota's desire to build a low-cost EV using a Tesla designed drivetrain, all of a sudden, the numbers started to work.



According to GreenBeat, "Again, this is a pretty radical change of pace for Tesla — and it’s apparently come about very quickly. The company had been interested in the NUMMI facility for a while. It met with the plant’s representatives about three months ago with no results. About a month ago, Akio Toyoda, president and CEO of Toyota, approached Musk about a potential strategic partnership, and the two executives hit it off, Musk says".

Also from GreenBeat:

1. The joint development of a brand new,sub- $30,000 electric car, that will contain Tesla’s unique powertrain design, with everything else built by Toyota;

2. The purchase of the NUMMI plant, where Tesla plans to manufacture both its Model S sedan due out in 2012, a new $30,000 Tesla-designed vehicle, and the more affordable jointly designed “third-generation” vehicle;

3. A $50 million investment from Toyota into Tesla when the company goes public, probably later this year.

All in all, this is great news! We'll have more choices in the EV world in a few years. The Volts and Leafs will prime the market for late entries, and if we get a decent energy bill that assigns a price to carbon, then the cost of gas will rise making more and more people make the switch.

Another big break came today in the Rose Garden of the White House when President Obama announced that, for the first time, the federal government will establish fuel-efficiency and greenhouse-pollution standards for heavy-duty trucks as well as for passenger vehicles. In a relatively short time, such standards could reduce emissions from long-distance trucking by one third.

The president had another, equally important, announcement: The EPA, Department of Transportation, and California will collaborate to set emission and efficiency standards for cars and light-duty passenger vehicles on a much longer time horizon. That's an essential step for letting automakers know: "You've got 15 years here, but you have to get off oil." Although those standards weren't announced today, this is still a huge breakthrough in the reshaping of the American transportation sector so that it can free itself from the grip of oil.

New Truck Emissions Standards a Strong Start
New Rules Will Decrease U.S. Global Warming Pollution, Oil Dependence

Washington, D.C. – President Barack Obama is announcing today that the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are setting the first-ever emissions standards for medium and heavy duty trucks starting in 2014 and will begin the next round of standards for cars and light trucks for 2017 and beyond.

Statement of Carl Pope, Chairman of Sierra Club

With the oil disaster in the Gulf showing us of the true cost of our oil dependence, we applaud President Obama for this historic announcement to improve the fuel economy of trucks. We urge the administration to set the strongest standards to drive us towards an oil-free energy future.

We need to end our dependence on oil as quickly as possible and the steps the President announced today will help us move us closer to that goal while also cleaning the air we breathe.

After cars and light trucks, freight trucks are the second largest consumers of oil – burning more than 2.4 million barrels per day and growing. Right now these trucks only average 6 miles per gallon--a number that has remained virtually unchanged since the 1970’s.

We are thrilled that the administration is moving forward with the next round of standards for cars and light trucks. Setting standards for vehicles for the longer term is needed to push old technology out and bring in the new. We are pleased that California is joining with EPA and NHTSA in looking at technology, continuing its critical leadership in setting a high bar for reducing vehicle greenhouse gas pollution.

For heavy duty trucks, these standards are a great start, but it is important to begin moving more freight by rail. This will yield the greatest savings in both oil and global warming pollution.

As part of the plan to end our oil dependence, we are also calling on President Obama to issue a presidential moratorium on offshore drilling. We already have the technology to create a clean, 21st century transportation system that will end our addiction to oil. We've been talking about getting off oil for decades. The disaster in the Gulf is a wake up call. It's time to get off oil and on to clean energy.

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, left the Bay Area on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some of his writings here.]

From the road in Durango ... including "poppa wheelies" bike delivery service checking out the bikes.




Jeff Litton of ugena.org joined the Green Riders for the first couple of days of the ride and created this video which is a great introduction to what the Green Riders are doing and why. http://ugena.org/thegreenriders/

The bike-ku contest here on Climate Crossroads is off to a great start. We've had more than 60 entries so far and there are still more than two weeks left for people to enter.

Remember, by entering you get the chance to win a brand new Breezer Uptown 8 bicycle. Runners-up will get a Kryptonite lock and a Nutcase helmet. A panel of bike-commuting Sierra Club staffers will pick the finalists and the winner will be selected by Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, founder of the Congressional Bicycle Caucus.

All you have to do is join the Bicycle group; post a picture; write a haiku. Your deadline is May 31. For more details visit the Bicycle group.

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, set off on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some of his writings here as well. And join the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads.]

The mayor of Flagstaff tries out an electric bike ... and likes it!

Cruising through the high desert.

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, set off on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some of his writings here as well. And join the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads.]

We woke to more wind and predictions of 50 mph + winds by the afternoon. Even though it's Mother's Day, we managed to get Derrick to ride with us for the day and we headed out after saying goodbye to Linda (Derrick's mother in law). She was so sweet to us and we basked in her hospitality.

We went to Mc Donalds to get "the best coffee in town", unload our bikes, use the bathroom, load up on water and head out of town.

The first 25 miles or so were up a wide valley with smooth, rounded red rock cliffs just on our right. It was some of the most spectacular scenery we have seen and our friendly tailwind kept us smiling. Derrick was a delight. He enjoyed every minute of the ride and added his knowledge and fun commentary to our day.

We turned east and headed up the pass that would drop us into New Mexico. Again, tailwinds helped us up a somewhat challenging pass and we stopped to picnic right below the summit where the rest of Derrick's family met us. It was great hanging out with them and Sean played in the snow with the three kids until his hands hurt from making and throwing snowballs.

At the top of the pass, Catherine turned over the reins of her steed to Sean to avoid the long steep windy downhill. And it was a long, very steep downhill. I used my brakes most of the way down and had trouble keeping myself below 40 mph.

Sean disappeared immediately and I won't say how fast he went. Almost at the bottom, I got my first flat tire and did a roadside repair with the help of Catherine who stayed behind us and was able to stop and help me fix the flat.

We reached our destination and it was obvious that our path forward was full blown sandstorm again. So, after a fond farewell to our new friends Derrick and his family, we loaded up all the bikes and detoured up to Mesa Verde where I am now sitting in a campground while Catherine cooks mutton stew and we are looking forward to spending most of the day tomorrow exploring Mesa Verde.

It's sad to be leaving Navajo Country. The limited services and lack of internet barely registered on our radar when compared to the warmth and beauty of the Navajo lands and people. I will need to come back and I will never forget the strength and warmth of the Navajo's we were so lucky to get to know.

Sick of oil? Do you bike instead? Do you haiku?

Enter our bike-ku contest for the chance to win a brand new Breezer Uptown 8 bicycle. Runners-up will get a Kryptonite lock and a Nutcase helmet. A panel of bike-commuting Sierra Club staffers will pick the finalists and the winner will be selected by Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, founder of the Congressional Bicycle Caucus.

It's National Bike Month and with news of oil spills clogging up your ears, there's no better time to celebrate our beloved, emissions-free, two-wheeled pals.

All you have to do is join the Bicycle group; post a picture; write a haiku. Your deadline is May 31. For more details visit the Bicycle group.

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, set off on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some of his writings here as well. And join the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads.]

Woke to a really cold morning and dashed off to the lodge for breakfast. Sean wanted pancakes.

After doing the ritual computer work, we walked out to the rim for a morning look and farewell. It was a crystal clear morning and since it was still pretty early, there were almost no people out. There was a school group that we passed on the trail who were all walking with their eyes closed holding on to each others shoulders until they reached the rim and were allowed to open their eyes. A moment most of them will always remember.

We unloaded our bikes about 20 miles outside of Flagstaff and rode into town to make our 2 o'clock meeting with the folks at Southwest WindPower. On the way, we stopped by The Grand Canyon Trust where we met some of the kind staff people I have been talking with over the last several months. They invited us to stay in their beautiful office which is a converted homestead farmhouse with solar panels and all sorts of energy efficiency features incorporated into the remodel.

We learned that our contact Derrick Terry in Window Rock has been very busy putting together a big event for next Saturday where a lot of Navajo sustainability people will show up as well as some of the staff from here. We are completely flabbergasted by how motivated people are to help spread the sustainability message. As The Green Riders, I feel like we are unleashing an opportunity for local communities to stand up and shout about the good they are doing and how much more needs to be done.

We rode down to SouthWest WindPower and met with Miriam Robbins, the marketing director. She gave us a great tour and spoke passionately about the need for alternatives when it comes to energy production. It was refreshing to hear her talk about the renewables as a family and consumers get to pick the renewable sibling that best suits their resource. If sun is in your air, go with solar. If it's wind, choose a turbine.

Even though Paul Gipe doesn't think small scale solar and wind contribute enough, quickly enough, he also said we need it all. So small scale distributed energy has its place. The value it gives to the user as a doorway into becoming engaged in building a sustainable future can be way more significant than the actual watts being produced by their home renewable energy system.

Tonight we are settled into the very nice offices with lots of computer access, wonderful maps and posters and even a firehouse next door!

Tomorrow is a big day. Our first real event where we will set up our roadshow and see what happens!!

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, will be setting off on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some his writings here as well. And join the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads.]

The nerves are a'tingling.

We are not ready but hopefully ready enough. Unfortunately, today is filled with events leaving very little time for organizing. We've come to the point where our actions have very little control over outcomes so we'll put this show on the road and see what happens!

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, will be setting off on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some his writings here as well. And join the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads.]

Less than 36 hours to departure! Here is the latest episode of "The Green Riders Videos" showing us (Oliver and Catherine) practicing riding and talking at the same time!

While we are on the road we hope to publish video shorts of our experiences. Please subscribe to the Green Riders videos at youtube.com/user/TheGreenRidersVideos (click the yellow 'subscribe' button at YouTube.)

We've been talking a lot about efficient, electric cars, but what about buses? They're already a cheaper, greener mode of transportation than gas-powered cars, and Greyhound is taking the next step to convince riders that buses are the coolest travel option - in more than one way. The company just introduced their new fleet of state-of-the-art buses boasting engines that are more fuel-efficient than ever and, as long as buses are full, generate significantly less carbon dioxide per passenger than even a hybrid vehicle.

Besides the eco-friendly stuff, Greyhound has made many other improvements: free wi-fi, outlets for laptops and cell phones, and more legroom at every seat. No scrunching or security lines? Count me in!

There's a small catch, though. You can currently only hop aboard one of these fancy new buses on a handful of frequently traveled Eastern Seaboard routes that compete with commuter plane flights. But the buses are coming to other Northeast cities soon (and eventually, I hope, to the rest of the country).

Last Monday, GM's Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the Volt, and Dave Barthmuss, GM's communications director, invited a dozen Plug In America members to Dodger Stadium for what turned out to be an exciting test drive of the Chevy Volt. Coming hard on the heels of our Nissan trip, it's clear the leading car makers bringing back plug-in cars are serious about soliciting input from the people who have the most experience driving EVs. That's a good sign.

We started off with a thorough explanation of the car including the charge port and 120Volt cord set with the standard three pronged plug. Given that the battery pack holds 16 kWh, but only 8 kWh will be usable (this is to protect the longevity of the pack), Level one charging on a 120V should suffice for most folks. According to Dave Barthmus, Level two charging (240V) will be available, but it's not been decided whether this will come standard, or be an option.

As for the price, Barthmus said that GM will announce this crucial piece of information about a month prior to the release of the Volt this fall. I hinted to them that they needed to be at least as low as $35K-$37K to be competitive, and lower would be better.

My first impression of the car was how nice it looked. When I first saw the body at Chris Paine'shouse during our Plug In America fundraiser 18 months ago, it was surrounded by a crowd of people and nose to nose to a Tesla Roadster. Here, however, I was able to get a good look, and I liked what I saw. Not too conservative and not too wild, not too big and not too small, a car most people would feel comfortable driving.

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, will be setting off on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some his writings here as well. And join the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads.]

Once upon a time there were two brothers who both loved to fix things and solve problems.

The one brother lived in the heart of a very high tech wealthy community that relied on the development of exotic solutions to problems. He built a beautiful and very expensive electric car that appealed to the small group of people who can afford fancy things and also support a sustainable future.

The other brother lived in the heart of the country in a struggling agricultural community that was losing talented young people to the wealthier parts of the country. This brother used pragmatic, clever solutions to solve problems. He saw the economic and environmental advantages of bringing wind turbines on to farmers' land as a way of keeping the farms viable through lease income. The turbines also reduced the demand for dirty coal fired electricity generation.

The two brothers loved each other very much and loved to share their experiences about how their projects were going.

One day a reporter learned about the two brothers and saw a great story. The reporter wanted to discover which brother was taking the right approach to solving problems. He contacted the brothers and engaged them in long discussions about whose strategy was the best. The two brothers refused to be drawn into a competitive match.

Try as he might, the reporter couldn't get the brothers to argue about who was solving problems the right way. After many hours of effort, it finally dawned on the reporter that the two brothers were both solving problems in the right way. So he wrote a story about that.

Moral: There are as many solutions to solving problems as there are brothers.

So here's some things you can do to become a sustainability brother or sister:

• Follow my blog and comment
• Help build a grassroots online community dedicated to sustainable solutions by describing what you're doing and/or what people you know are doing
• Invite us to power up at your house if you are on our route. Especially if you generate your power with renewable energy
• Hop on a bike and see if you can keep up with us. Help us organize an event in Washington DC that will get the attention of our policy makers
• Create your own engagement activity and tell us about it

As reported in Autobloggreen, the EPA has announced it will allow the first 200,000 units of a given manufacturer's EVs sold as zero emission for the purpose of corporate average fuel economy (CAFE). After that milestone is reached, the EPA will start assigning pollution credits based on the pollution from generating the electricity that powers the car. Regardless of how many units sold, after 2016, all EVs will be assessed some level of pollution. The reason this is important is because the carmakers have to hit a CAFE standard of 34 mpg by 2016. If they count the pollution from the generation of the electricity, then more of their gas cars will have to be smaller. A good thing for society, but not necessarily what the dealers want.

This idea has merit, but only if implemented fairly.

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, will be setting off on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting some his writings here as well. And join the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads.]

On Friday April 2nd, brother Michael brought Catherine and my bicycle down to our mother's house. We also met Dave Werkley who will be riding the first two weeks with us. He's a gem and we are thrilled to have his company. His wife, Donna also came and we enjoyed the afternoon and evening together. We took the rigs out for test rides around the streets where I learned to ride a bike as a kid and it was completely delightful!

Now we are in the final push. Taking longer rides, gearing up the bikes and support vehicle and nailing down visits along our route. The reality of this project is finally hitting Catherine and she's having some anxiety. I feel better that I have someone to share mine with!!

Just a few months after taking office, I also gathered the leaders of the world's largest automakers, the heads of labor unions, environmental advocates, and public officials from California and across the country to reach an historic agreement to raise fuel economy standards in cars and trucks. Tomorrow, after decades in which we have done little to increase auto efficiency, those new standards will be finalized, which will reduce our dependence on oil while helping folks spend a little less at the pump.

So my administration is upholding its end of the deal, and we expect all parties to do the same. I'd also point out: this rule will not only save drivers money; it will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil. That’s like taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year.

• Automakers cannot buy their way out of compliance as they can under CAFE;
• EPA can set technology forcing standards;
• EPA addresses the 4 greenhouse gases vehicles emit (nitrous oxide, methane, hydroflourocarbons and CO2);
• EPA indicated its intent to make compliance transparent – and we look forward to how EPA addresses this issue tomorrow – we all deserve a clear way to judge how automakers are complying with the law each year, something that has been lacking under the CAFE program.

Gov. Schwarzenegger famously rides his Harley up the Pacific Coast Highway on weekends with his buddies, but last week, he took some time out of his busy schedule to talk about the benefits of zero-emission bikes when he showed off several Zero Motorcycles outside the capitol in Sacramento.

Zero seems to be gaining ground in this burgeoning market of quiet, yet powerful 2-wheel scooters and motorcycles. Several companies are vying for the upper end of electric motorcycle world, Mission Motors, Brammo and Honda among others. Zero, however, has been selling their super quick dirt bike for over a year now and have added a road version to entice commuters wanting some excitement in their ride to and from work.

I had the opportunity to ride the Zero a while back at Santa Monica's AltCar Expo and was thoroughly impressed. As a rider of the super smooth Vectrix Maxi Scooter, I was ready for some quick acceleration, but what I got was way more than I was prepared for. The 0-30 was a scary quick 2 seconds! I know, I know, we usually hear 0-60 times, but you have to experience this off-the-line speed on a virtually silent bike that weighs a mere 172 lbs to understand how cool that is. By comparison, my Vectrix hits 30 in about 4 seconds and weighs in at a hefty 465 lbs.

I'm looking forward to trying the Zero road bike next. Maybe I'll check them out at Hollywood Electrics, a new store specializing in electric bikes of all kinds.

For those who live in big cities in warm climates, the electric two-wheeler is a great option for getting from point A to point B with a minimum of energy or effort. Now, I'm gonna take a quick ride down to the beach for the sunset!

On the far right is Plug In America's super-effective legislative director, Jay Friedland. When you finally go to pick up your shiny new EV at the the showroom of GM, Ford, Nissan, Volvo, Mercedes, or any other OEMs making them, say a little thank you to Jay for the $7,500 federal tax credit and the $5,000 CA state tax credit ($1,500 for motorcycles :~). Jay was instrumental in making those happen.

(Like what you read? Read my blog EVs & Energy.)

[ editor's note: On Earth Day Oliver Bock, a Sierra Club member, and his sister, will be setting off on a cross-country adventure on electric bicycles. Follow Oliver's journey at his blog. We will be posting his writings here as well. And join the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads.]

As our electric bicycles go through their testing, tuning debugging etc., we are pushing dangerously close to our departure date without having full confidence in our rigs. The most recent concern has been the bicycle we built up on a cargo bike frame. The bicycle works well but the extra weight adds extra stress to the wheel and requires more battery power to get the mileage we need. As a consequence of losing confidence in the cargo bike for the long trip, I approached Michael DeVisser, the owner (with his father) of OHM bikes. About a month ago they had expressed interest in providing us with a bicycle but I wasn't interested since we were counting on the cargo bike.

I called Michael on Thursday, we talked for about 15 minutes and I emailed him our website and a short note updating the status of the trip and by 4 p.m. Friday he wrote back to me and offered us the loan of an OHM bike!! Not only that, he is loaning us the high end model with the bigger motor and suspension and providing an additional battery pack to extend our range to where we need it. OHM is a small company and to loan us a bicycle that won't come back new is a big deal for them. Not only am I completely delighted with their generosity but their bike uses the very reliable BionX system.

The disadvantage of the OHM for many people is the price. I'm not sure what they retail for but they are more expensive than most electric bicycles out there. On the other hand, they use excellent components, they ride really well and they will outlast most other electric bicycles on the market today. So, you get what you pay for. The OHM's are selling really well in Marin where the terrain overwhelms the lower end electric bikes.

The idea of owning an EV is not that far-fetched. I conducted a few interviews with EV owners. Read them here, here, and here.

• Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
• Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
• Go beyond minimum design standards.
• Collect data on walking and biking trips.
• Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
• Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected (for example, snow removal)
• Improve non-motorized facilities during maintenance projects.

The big topic these days is charging infrastructure, a rather dry sounding term, but something with which everyone will soon be very familiar. It's what gets the kWh into your battery.

This is a very good article on the joining of five of Japan's strongest companies in the auto and electric power business forming a group to, among other things, set a standard for fast charging electric vehicles. To recap... there are three levels of charging a plug-in vehicle.

see more Epic Fails

...here's another reason to use a bike when you can. Join our Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads. The group has 500+ members and an excellent photo gallery.

On Earth Day, Oliver Bock -- a Sierra Club member from the San Francisco Bay Area -- and his wife will be embarking on a journey across the country on electric bikes.

Oliver is a member of the Bicycle group here on Climate Crossroads. He is running a blog called The Green Riders about his upcoming adventure. His blog articles also will be featured at the Bicycle group. So keep your eyes peeled as things develop!

California and the nation have a reason to celebrate. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted unanimously to pass a resolution that accepts compliance with federal greenhouse gas emission standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) fuel economy program as compliance with CA's vehicle emissions standards.

Sierra Club California's Director, Bill Magavern testified at the hearing applauding CARB for setting the example for the rest of the nation when it comes to setting standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions spewing from our passenger vehicles. The auto manufacturers showed up, but this time it was to applaud CARB and the US EPA for taking steps to set national greenhouse gas standards. In fact, the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM) and Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) both testified that they look forward to working on setting the next wave of national greenhouse gas standards for model years 2017 and beyond. Sierra Club California will be working hard to hold them to their end of the bargain.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions coming from our cars and trucks across the country could significantly clean up our air for our children and future generations, create new jobs and advance technology by creating a new green vehicle industry. Union of Concerned Scientists research shows that by setting high standards drivers could save tens of billions of dollars, curb US oil usage by 1.3 million barrels each day by 2020, and cut emissions that cause global warming by 217 million metric tons in 2020.

Next steps include the US EPA setting the final national standards by March 31, 2010.

My mission with the Sierra Club is to fight climate change by reducing Rhode Island’s carbon emissions. Since 42% of our State’s emissions are produced by the transportation sector, Sierra devised the Transportation Choices 2020 campaign to affect the greatest reduction. Essentially, Rhode Island needs to move away from its dependency on the car culture in order to do its part, and that means we need more options than just the car in the driveway.

Too often, we overlook biking and walking as viable alternatives to our automobiles, but the fact is we live in a tiny State where the power in our legs could easily satisfy many of our transportation needs. If we placed greater emphasis on designing our communities and the roads between them to be more walkable and bikeable, we could reap enormous rewards in the battle against climate change, at the same time encouraging much more healthy lifestyles.

Unfortunately, Rhode Island bikers and pedestrians are confronted by unfriendly roads, designed for the singular use of the car. There is a movement afoot to change our cultural disregard for walking and biking, and it’s called complete streets. The idea is to incorporate space for all modes of transportation into street design and to restripe our old roads so they meet everyone’s needs.

courtesy Zan Dubin Scott

Tom Fuller, a financer from Santa Monica, is the proud owner of the electric Tesla. Moreover, his car is powered by solar panels that have sat on his home’s roof for 10 years. This is the last of three interviews with EV owners. Read the others here and here. For more information on how to become an EV owner, visit PlugInAmerica.org.

Tell me about the Tesla Roadster.

It’s a lot like a traditional Roadster. It’s very light, tight, with less suspension. It bounces around like crazy. It’s incredibly fast. In terms of trying to change the world and create a movement, they designed a high-performance, albeit fairly expensive, electric car to get past people’s resistance and perception that electric cars are slow, clunky, and kind of not cool. So they went for the cool factor and I bought into it. It was kind of a fun thing to do. Tesla has been very instrumental in changing people’s perception.

Why did you get it?

I’m not a hardcore environmentalist. I don’t spend a lot of time being an activist although we act locally and think globally. Putting panels on my house and getting this car seemed like the right thing to do.

You touched up on the fact that the Tesla is a bit pricey. That’s one thing critics focus on.

Clearly it’s an expensive car to make because of the technology. And they have no volume so the unit costs are quite high. With limited production it’s hard to make a car that’s cheaper. But they did an interesting thing. They positioned it as, “Yeah, it’s expensive.” It’s about $105,000. But for a car like that, it’s not more expensive. A Mercedes 500 probably sells for more than that. Though it’s not nearly as fancy as a Mercedes or Porsche. It’s faster though.

They did a phenomenal job at marketing it to people like me. It was convincing that -- yeah, it’s expensive but by buying this car, you’re keeping it in business -- by immediate cash flow and sales, but also by being a driving advertisement. I wasn’t really price sensitive anyway and I thought it was important to do. They created a following around the company.

How did you get this electric motorcycle?

It’s a little tricky. There are not a lot of three-wheel electric motorcycles for sale. But there is a company out in Oregon that is now manufacturing the bodies -- or shells, frames -- so that you can put it together yourself and you can put into it your own electric motor that you buy from them or separately. I bought a separate motor because I wanted more power. Mine is considerably modified from the original BugE.

Can you describe this vehicle?

It’s got two direction wheels in the front and one drive wheel in the rear and a body structure that is aero-dynamically streamlined that makes it slick to the wind. It looks kind of interesting, frankly.

What’s the range?

If you have lead acid batteries in there, it’ll probably go about 30 or 40 miles on a charge. If you put in lithium ion batteries, as I’m attempting to do, it’ll have a 100-mile range or more.

And your adventure will be powered by solar?

My intention is to have a trailer to be pulled behind it with solar panels on top of it. It will also have extra lithium ion batteries underneath the panel to give it extra weight or ballast to hold this thing down. I have six 80 watt Sharp PV polycrystalline solar panels, but I am open to an upgrade!

Have you always been this passionate about EVs and renewable energy?

I’ve always been interested in reducing my carbon footprint. For the last 20 years I’ve been involved in electric vehicles. I’ve owned a series of EVs. One was a sedan -- a 1981 Dodge Neon. I had a 1997 Chevy pick-up truck made by General Motors at their factory. And now I’m working on this three wheel motorcycle. I feel a bit like Toad of Toad Hall -- that animated cartoon from years back who always wanted to buy the latest contraption that would take him around.

Let’s say I’m a typical middle-class American and I want an EV. What's your advice?

There are a number of second-hand, cheaper electric vehicles, whether they’re motorcycles or cars or trucks. They’re on sale on eBay or Craigslist and you can find them through various electric vehicle associations. There are electric vehicle clubs. If you have enough money to buy a new electric vehicle, Nissan is coming out with the Leaf all-electric vehicle sometime in 2011. The Volt is an electric hybrid, which is a pretty good idea. It’s pure electric for the first 40 miles, which then kicks in your gasoline engine. By that process you can go 100 or 150 miles per gallon. The Volt’s supposed to be sold this fall. And there are a lot of other companies that are getting on board.

What do you think about when you see gas prices?

Gas prices are way too low in this country. We need to tax gas so that it’s $5 a gallon like it is in Japan or $7 a gallon like it is in Europe. That would be more of an incentive for us to think about electric vehicles. I think a lot more people would look at it and say, “This is a great idea.” In fact, it’s already a great idea. If you get yourself an electric vehicle, your cost for fuel -- your electricity -- is one-quarter the cost of gasoline, presuming gas is about $2.50 a gallon. When we had $4 a gallon the summer before last, we had a lot more people asking about electric vehicles. And maintenance costs! There are no oil changes, there’s no muffler to be replaced....

All of those costs to maintaining a gas engine, which is basically an explosion going on in your car -- no wonder the thing falls apart -- don’t happen. Think about your power drill you keep down in the basement. When was the last time you had to overhaul its engine, or change the oil, or flush the radiator? Never!

courtesy Colin Summers

In 1998, Colin Summers, an architect who lives in Santa Monica, convinced his wife that they should get an electric car. They got one and never looked back. Today, they are the proud owners of a four-door Toyota RAV 4. While his wife primarily uses the car for her commute, Summers drives a Prius. They also have solar panels on their home. This is the first of three interviews with EV owners. For more info on becoming an EV owner, visit PlugInAmerica.org.

(Read our other interviews with a Tesla owner and the driver of a three-wheel electric motorcycle.)

Last Friday, Chelsea Sexton dropped off the cute little Mitsubishi iMiEV (pronounced I-meev) test car. She and her husband, Bob, had been driving it for a week, and now it was our turn.

This version is a right-hand drive built for the Japanese market. Driving from the right side of a car isn't that hard to get used to, but remembering the turn signal vs. windshield wiper switch took concentration.

According to Mitsubishi, this Smart-sized EV will be aimed at the commuter market which, given the sub-80 mile range, is a perfect fit. The 16 kWh LiIon pack, located under the passenger compartment, keeps the center of gravity low. One of the benefits of having a smaller battery pack is that the overall weight of the car is just a bit north of 2300 lbs.

The driving experience was very good. Acceleration was comparable to our RAV, which is to say, it's not going to beat a Tesla Roadster, but it had no problem accelerating up to speed on the freeway. I particularly liked its cornering ability, and the small size makes it very easy to park just about anywhere. Their engineers must have been listening to us since they incorporated a creep mode into the software. This mimics how a gas car will roll forward when you take your foot off the brake. It's helpful when you're on a hill so you don't roll backward, and it's something you expect, so the experience is very close to what you're used to. The iMiEV is also very quiet, much like the RAV.

The Big Picture -- our biggest group here on Climate Crossroads -- is doing some awesome things. Read the group's latest bulletin and get involved:

Earlier this month we asked Big Picture supporters to write a personal letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to counter the intense pressure the coal industry is putting on the White House to weaken or halt draft EPA regulations that would protect at risk communities from coal ash disasters like the 2008 spill in Tennessee, as well as gradual but dangerous water contamination as coal ash toxins, such as arsenic, selenium, mercury, and cadmium seep into drinking water. Over 2,000 people submitted a letter for us to take to a meeting with OMB or deliver in person to the office! You can keep the momentum growing by taking the movement on to Facebook.

(Like what you read? Visit my blog EVs & Energy.)

The line for a new plug-in vehicle from a major OEM is now forming with Nissan's announcement that you can register for a first come - first served place in line to get their Leaf.

You can reserve your place in line starting in April for a refundable $100, and confirm the purchase as early as August for a delivery probably in December, or shortly thereafter.

Of interest is that they are confirming you can either buy the car, or lease it. No confirmation on whether you can buy the car and lease the battery. They're still working on how that would work, if at all.

Some might not feel it's important to get one of the first of any particular car, especially since brand new vehicles tend to have some shakeout issues that get fixed in subsequent iterations. However, there are those who like being in the vanguard and want to be the first on their block with exciting new technology.

Well, if you fit that description, you'll definitely want to get on Nissan's list. And GM's for that matter when it starts.

I wasn't that type of guy for most of my life, but I stumbled into the most incredible opportunity in 2002 that literally changed my life forever. My wife and I bought an electric car.

From that point on, we haven't emitted a whiff of pollution while driving.

We stopped going to gas stations entirely.

We never, ever wondered if our car would start and run. It's operated perfectly 100% of the time for over 7 years and 78,589 miles.

All of our energy money stays in our country. Most of it in our own pockets.

We can run our car with energy generated from the sunlight falling on our house.

All of these things making driving a complete and utter joy.

This is why I think Nissan and GM, not to mention BMW, Mitsubishi, Volvo, Mercedes, Ford and all the rest, are going to have a hard time keeping their cars in stock. There will be a strong initial demand followed by huge word of mouth.

A nice (snowy) day for a ride.

The Bicycle group has nearly 500 members and a fantastic blog, where group member drain is posting drawings (like this one). Check out his other bike related alphabet drawings here.

Last week I read an article in my local newspaper about the environmental impacts of a decrease in public transportation ridership, and the subject of commuting has been on my mind ever since. The article described issues facing transit authorities these days:

Without a doubt, air quality inventories show that the best way to cut greenhouse gases in the region is by removing cars from the road.

However, with the cost to drive plummeting and fare increases and service cuts making transit less practical, transit agencies are having problems retaining their old passengers, let alone attracting new ones. If that continues, the effects could be dramatic — more cars on the road could endanger human health, produce hazier air and contribute to rising sea levels.

What do Texans know about electric cars? Quite a bit it turns out.

I spent Friday and Saturday in Austin at their Climate Protection Conference and Expo. Fellow Plug In America board member, Marc Geller, and I set up our booth and spent two days talking non-stop to Texans about plug-in cars and renewable energy. We also spoke on two panels, Marc spoke about the cars themselves and I spoke on a panel about charging infrastructure.

Having grown up in San Antonio, I remember how conservative Texans were in general, so I fully expected to encounter some push back on our positions regarding EVs. On the contrary, with one notable exception*, everyone we met was as hungry for EVs as we were. The only difference was that they had not yet learned about the coming plug-ins. It was our job to inform them. Once told of the auto industry's rapid move toward electrification, you could feel their excitement grow.

I was struck with the pervasive desire to quash our addiction to oil and replace it with a healthy reliance on renewable energy. The demand for plug-ins is not just on the two coasts, Americans everywhere want them.

My previous statements, that the market for plug-ins is much larger than the automakers think, were borne out in our conversations with these Texans. To a person, they were desperate to move away from oil. Granted, we were in Austin, the most liberal city in the state, but not everyone at the conference was from Austin. We met people from San Antonio, Dallas and Houston and they were all the same. They couldn't wait for the opportunity to drive on electricity.

"We can now see a clear path to having thousands -- even hundreds of thousands -- of zero-emission vehicles on Texas roads in the next several years," said Jason Few, president of Houston-based Reliant Energy. The local utility, Austin Energy, has been a leader in wind energy with the nation's highest percentage of wind in a municipal utility grid mix. Their understanding of the benefits from plug-in cars goes back many years to the inception of their Plug In Partners program. Using that strong west Texas wind and the plentiful sunshine to replace the 60% foreign oil in every gallon of gas makes sense to everybody.

The only downside here is that most Texans are going to have to wait a bit longer to get the cars because the GM Volt roll out will be limited to California, at least for the first few months; and Nissan's announced plans for the Leaf are mostly for a West Coast roll out with some cars going to Arizona and Tennessee. I recently heard that Nissan has agreed to supply Houston with a few Leafs from the initial manufacturing run. This is a good idea since Texans are hot for EVs. Marc and I told them repeatedly to contact their local GM and Nissan Dealers in Austin and request they get them as soon as possible. From a marketing viewpoint, getting these cars in the hands of outspoken early adopters will go a long way toward preparing the ground for others. Word of mouth will be strong.

I think the nervousness from the OEMs about the market for plug-ins is misplaced. What we're seeing in Texas and elsewhere seems to be prevalent. I honestly think their problem will be keeping up with demand.

I want to personally thank Chad Schwitters of Seattle, Brett Conrad of Santa Monica and Peter van Deventer of the Netherlands for their generous contributions to help defray the costs of my trip. Our membership continues to grow, allowing Plug In America to further educate info-hungry drivers on the benefits of going electric and preparing them for the change.

* The notable exception mentioned above is my very own brother, Harrel, who lives a short drive from Austin. He drove up to see me on his motorcycle, instead of his giant SUV. I took that as a good sign:~)

I'll consider my work done when he's driving on electricity.

(Like what you read? Visit my blog EVs & Energy.)

Mr. Green dipped into his mailbag again and addressed this question: "Can you drive a stake into the persistent myth that hybrid cars are bad from a cradle-to-grave carbon footprint perspective? I am tired of someone (who is mechanically inclined and has much more time on his hands than me) going on about the MPG of his 1993 Mustang."

Go to the Mr. Green blog to read his answer.

This is a great video for all you bike enthusiasts out there. "I think I'm the only Hispanic around this area, because I haven't seen other Hispanics working on bikes." Do you know the people behind the counter of your local bike shop? Join the bike group, post a pic of your bike, and discuss!

The Hoosiers won out over the Ducks of Oregon and the Michiganders for the right to manufacture Think City EVs.

I love the Think! It's the car that hooked Plug In America board members Marc Geller and Sherry Boshert into the EV world when Ford was trying to meet the CARB zero emission vehicle mandate of the past decade.

Norway based Think has changed hands a few times among various groups that tried to get it going. This latest iteration is up and running in Finland, finally rolling EVs off the line for the Euro market. Now they've decided on Elkhart, IN as the location for their U.S. manufacturing.

Building EVs will bring much needed jobs to Indiana where, not coincidentally, EnerDel, Think's battery maker of choice is located. No sense shipping those heavy batteries too far.

The Think is a "city car", a classification that's quite popular in Europe. With a top speed of 60 mph and a range of 100 miles, it's ideal for the commuter. Small and light, it'll go many miles on just a few kWh.

Best of all, the Think will be a great entry level EV. I don't have pricing info yet, but the small size should enable them to get away with a small pack, I'm guessing somewhere around 20 kWh.

It should be quite popular as a first car for your high schooler, can't go too far or too fast.

The Indiana choice is interesting as it's just 137 miles from Anderson, IN, home of Bright Automotive, the maker of the most innovative plug-in hybrid work van I've seen. Here's hoping this will be the start of a center of EV innovation in the heartland.

Indiana, Thinking of Bright Ideas!

(Read more at my blog EVs & Energy.)

Winter solstice has always been special to me given it's the shortest day of the year. Even with the short hours, our 3 kW PV system will generate many clean kilowatt hours today, and every day from now till June's summer solstice, we'll generate more as the sun reaches higher in the sky and more photons slam into the panels at 300,000 kilometers per second knocking electrons free from the silicon so they can travel through the copper wires and do the work we need done.

But in addition to the extreme astronomical position, winter solstice just happened to be the day that my wife Zan and I took possession of our EV. Our planet has traveled around the sun 7 times since 2002 and we've driven our EV more than 77,000 miles on the solar-generated kilowatt hours made on our roof. There's a bit of a back story here that many of you on my list might find interesting. I asked Zan to help write this post, given her part in making it all happen.


She said: Seven years ago today Paul and I took delivery of our Toyota RAV4 EV and everything changed.

This is a remarkably well written op-ed by Denis Hayes and Steve Marshall on a little-discussed aspect of the economic case for EVs. I strongly recommend you read and pass it along.

This post is essentially an open letter to Washington governor, Chris Gregoire, asking her to enact a simple plan that will hasten the adoption of plug-in cars. I want you to forward this to your respective governors since the concept is relevant to all 50 states.

Essentially, Hayes and Marshall propose that Gov. Gregoire enact a moratorium on the purchase of new fleet vehicles. Just keep the three year old cars a bit longer. This would save several million dollars the first year alone. Then, when the Leaf and Volt enter the market, they want the state to buy as many as possible for their fleets with the saved funds, ensuring a strong demand from the start. In other words, "No Plug, No Deal" on a statewide scale!

The Washington State Transportation Commission estimates $16 billion leaves the state each year for foreign oil. Every person who fills a tank with gas or diesel sends over 60% of their money out of the country. Additionally, the Washington taxpayers spend tens of millions of their money to fuel the state fleet.

This is important because, for every EV that replaces a gas burner, the money spent for the energy to move it stays local. $16 billion dollars in the case of Washington. Imagine what it is for California? For the whole country?

With each plug-in car that's sold, the spigot of money that's on full blast right now going to the oil companies, will gradually close, until decades from now, it's shut off entirely. All those billions of dollars that had been lining the pockets and robes of the most evil people on earth - and I don't make that statement lightly - will instead be staying in our own pockets, with a little going to the utilities.


How to pay for it?

So I was wondering, why is it that commercial air travel is considered so non-green? It seems unjust that my efforts to live green all year are negated by a few flights to Sierra Club headquarters and a trip or two to visit my parents.

Most carbon calculators - but notably not ours at Sierra Club Green Home (www.sierraclubgreenhome.com) - penalize even the dark green citizen who is required to fly commercial for work. Let's say you're a sales manager, you diligently recycle, you watch the thermostats, you have low-water landscaping, you eat organic vegetables, you're doing everything right except your job requires you to fly from Denver to Cincinnati twice a month. According to most evaluations, you are a serious carbon emitter. I don't think this is right, it's not fair to call this person a polluter. His or her lifestyle and home are green, and should be respected as such.

Over the past few months, we've seen a surge of announcements from the mayors of the four largest west coast cities over which city will be the leader in plug-in cars.

In August, Portland's Sam Adams said:

“This is exactly the kind of clean tech investment that Portland, and Oregon, have fought for, “said Mayor Sam Adams. “I have committed to making Portland a national leader in the EV industry, and with Nissan and eTec, we’re able to move our agenda forward.”

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has challenged Sam Adams over which of their cities will be the nation’s EV capitol.

He also said,

“Electric vehicles have the possibility to transform our economy, revive our car industry, and improve our environment. To make sure electric vehicles succeed this time around we need to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in battery technology and [charging] infrastructure.”

In Seattle, Mayor Greg Nickels, who is arguably the best of the lot when it comes to the environment said,

"I extend an invitation to my fellow mayors to join us. I congratulate Portland and San Francisco for taking major steps to green up their grid while preparing for the electric car revolution. This is an exciting time, and the coming clean energy economy will open up plenty of opportunities for all of our cities to win jobs and investment."

And Mr. "better late than never" Los Angeles Mayor, Villaraigosa, finally joined the group last week at a Bloomberg conference near UCLA saying LA would install 500 charging stations. While this is a good start, it is coming a bit late to the game. Since much of the modern EV movement was birthed from LA companies like AC Propulsion and Aerovironment. you'd think our Mayor would be more engaged. They need to put a team of people together and get busy. There's a lot of work to do.

Which brings me to BYD, the Chinese battery company-turned-EV company. You may recall that Warren Buffett bought 10% of BYD about a year ago. He wants to make Los Angeles the U.S. headquarters for the fast growing EV/PHEV maker. He also sees our city as the most logical starting point to sell his cars.

"BYD Co., the Chinese auto maker part-owned by one of Warren Buffett's companies, is likely to choose the Los Angeles area as the lead market for the electric car it plans to start selling in the U.S. late next year, a senior executive said. BYD is also leaning toward choosing the West Coast metropolis as home to its U.S. headquarters for the auto business, Henry Li, a BYD senior director in charge of its auto business outside China, said in an interview Wednesday."

All the more reason to get our city ready.

I sold my car last Sunday. I’m totally thrilled about this -- not only is it pretty green, which was my main consideration, but I’m also saying buh-bye (good riddance!) to car payments, car insurance, gas and parking in my neighborhood.

I signed up for Zipcar -- which I’ll review once I’ve tried -- and am totally digging taking the bus. I love trying new routes and feel like I’m on vacation in my own City whenever I take the underground.

However. There’s one thing I haven’t quite gotten down yet. How do I manage hauling a gym bag, purse, laptop bag and other assorted bags on various days (gym shower stuff! groceries! jacket! change of shoes!) on public transit?

Last night, I tried carrying way too much at once – laptop bag, change of shoes, reusable bag (containing a dress, 2 pairs of knit tights, 1 pair of bright blue tights, a cabbage and an onion – what, that’s normal, right?), and a bag full of groceries. On three buses. Definitely one bus too many. I won’t make that mistake again. Lesson learned!

I don’t have egg on my face, but I do have it all over my coat.

(Original post at pretty green girl)

The Guardian recently asked, "What's stopping teenage girls from riding bikes?"

Teenage girls don't ride bikes. Or so says the Darlington Media Group, who have set about trying to rectify the problem with a campaign to get young women cycling.

Several years ago, the National Children's Bureau published research that revealed that on average, boys cycle 138 miles a year and girls only 24 miles. This still rings true. Christie Rae, 16, from Newcastle told me: "I do have a bike, but I don't really use it. Only sometimes in the summer when my friends and I cycle round to see each other. I don't know many girls that do, actually."

Last week, Crossroads featured a blog post on women and bike commuting. It's a must-read. And If you like to bike, join the bike group.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault/Nissan, was on hand to introduce the new Nissan Leaf electric car this morning at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. A large crowd of media and EV enthusiasts were on hand to drive the Nissan Versa test vehicle sporting the electric drive train of the Leaf.

The Versa is very close in size and weight of the Leaf, so the driving characteristics are pretty much what you'll see in the Leaf itself when Nissan brings it to market next fall.

Acceleration was quite good even when going uphill with the weight of three adults. Nissan's Larry Dominique says 0-60 is under 10 seconds, quick enough for most folks. Regenerative braking will be automatic with two levels, a very mild deceleration similar to what you feel when you lift your foot from a gas pedal in an internal combustion car, and a slightly stronger regen you can employ by moving a lever. It wasn't clear if the car will be enabled to "freewheel" like my RAV. For hypermilers such as myself, freewheeling is very important. I assume they'll incorporate it eventually if it's not already there.

I found the car to be a bit more attractive in person than in the photos. It's distinctive without being bizarre. The lines are clearly drawn with a low drag coefficient in mind and this accounts for the ability to average about 4 miles per kWh.

The car comes equipped with a lithium manganese battery pack made by Nissan partner, NEC. The capacity is a mere 24 kWh, 3 less than my RAV's NiMH battery holds.

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organisation was that it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. "We have [already] entered the 'peak oil' zone. I think that the situation is really bad," he added.

I try to only talk about the future of EVs here, but this story from the past got my attention.

From All Cars Electric entitled, "GM Insider Admits Company Knew Consumers Demanded Efficient Vehicles Decades Ago." This is a pretty astounding admission.

As McManus said, "The survey would estimate that people would estimate fuel economy fairly highly. Being a good economist, I said, 'No, they don't,' and I changed the results. [...] Our job was not to seek the truth, but to justify decisions that had already been made."

So, as we go forward toward this new electric future, keep in mind that when big dollars are involved, you can expect that not everything the car makers, the utilities, and even the regulators tell us is going to be true.

 A nice (snowy) day for a ride.

Have questions about commuting or finding the right bike? Ask them in the comments below.

 Bike commuting in style in Amsterdam. Thanks Brian.

 A good example of a steel commuting bike with fenders and racks.

There are few things simpler than riding a bike to get around. It’s a pleasure most of us learned as a child but gave up somewhere around age 16 when we picked up a set of car keys. Maybe later on we started riding again to get in shape, or because we saw Lance Armstrong powering up the Alpe d'Huez and thought, “Wow, that whole biking thing is pretty cool.” And now, when we think about climate change, ways to reduce our carbon emissions, and all those people on bikes we see each morning, we wonder if we could actually become a bike commuter.

If you ever considered biking to work but were kept away by worries about logistics, rain, or what your co-workers might think, you'll find a series of tips here on the Crossroads blog to get you to work on your bike at least once a week. Today's post is about bikes.

The cost of driving your gas car and powering your house just got quantified a little better.

And you thought it was just those numbers on the Chevron sign:~)

Whenever I give talks about EVs and renewable energy, I invariably get asked about the price of both. My solar customers ask how long it takes to pay off the photovoltaic system, and those I encourage to buy the coming EVs ask how much they'll cost compared to similar gas burners. These are legitimate questions, of course, but I'm always left with having to explain that the "price" of these things does not reflect the "cost".

"Internalize the Externalities." That should be a bumper sticker that all enviros use to get across the idea that dirty fuels are not priced according to their true costs. This NY Times article discusses a Congress-authorized study by the National Academy of Sciences that took into consideration some, but not all, of the external costs of fossil fuels.

It turns out that the burning of the two worst fuels, coal and oil, accounts for about $120 billion each year in health costs. The study was very conservative in detailing the costs. They left out any costs attributable to climate change as "too uncertain to estimate" for instance.

Jesse is tweeting from the hearing, so follow @SierraClubLive or the #fueleconomy hashtag on Twitter. The hearing began at 9am ET.

I spent both Friday and Saturday at the AltCar Expo in Santa Monica. This convention has been showing alternative vehicles to the public for four years now, but little in the way of highway capable cars that the masses can buy.

On Friday night, Gov. Schwarzenegger dropped by with an entourage that included CARB Chair, Mary Nichols, and former CA EPA head, Terry Tamminen, the subject of an earlier blog. I watched as the Gov spoke about his Hydrogen Highway with a smug Tamminen beside him. I had to bite my tongue.

At least the Gov was able to see that the rest of the show included plug-in vehicles almost exclusively, and by the time he left, my hope was that batteries had mostly replaced pie-in-the-sky fuel cells in his mind.

As for the show, it was smaller than last year, both in attendance and vehicles. However, there was a palpable feeling in the crowd that wasn't there in years past. Everyone seemed to understand that this was the last AltCar at which you would not be able to buy a highway capable EV from a major OEM. Thus, the countdown has commenced. By the time of next year's AltCar Expo, several major, and a few minor, car makers will have vehicles in the market.

As a testament to this, the parking lot had a sprinkling of Teslas and Mini Es. I expect that next year's event will have much, much more.

(Like what you read? Visit my blog EVs and Energy.)

Did you do anything on National Parking Day? Check out these creative folks.

By the way, join the Green Transportation group here on Crossroads.

Jay Leno is well known for his car collection. Watch him wish Drew Barrymore good luck as she tries to maneuver an electric car around a cardboard cut-out of Al Gore.

I enjoy Matthew Yglesias' blog. Apparently he's hanging out in Germany. Today he posted this picture and wrote:

[A]s everyone knows dense, walkable areas may work in Europe where nobody has children but it could never fly in the U.S. where people need to tote the kids around. Or maybe it’s that there’s no way to build human-scale walkable communities without blotting out the sun with Manhattan-style skyscrapers.

Join the Walk About group here on Crossroads if you're the kind of person who likes to stroll the urban sidewalks.

We present the quiz that walked a thousand planks:

How Green Is My Pirate Ship?

Take it if you dare, but tell no tales.

This is a guest post from Jesse Prentice-Dunn of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Program 

We believe that the best way for America to get out of this mess is by becoming the world’s leader in renewable energy, green products and jobs. This agenda is mantra for President Obama and his platform. Here’s a fly in that ointment, however, and it won’t surprise you where it comes from -- China.

It seems that the Chinese government is subsidizing its leading producers of photovoltaic solar panels so they can sell here for less than American-made panels. Chinese firms such as Suntech Power Holdings are opening offices and production facilities on American soil to avoid tariffs, similar to what the Japanese car companies did over the past 40 years with great success. Journalist Keith Bradsher of The New York Times unearthed plenty of examples of this plan in his recent article.

This story is about the economics of EVs, but it addresses a mostly unknown aspect that is only recently getting some attention.

What is the value of the battery pack when it can no longer give you the service you require?

Lithium-ion batteries have a limited number of charge cycles in electric vehicles, but once a car’s battery pack goes kaput, it can be recycled or find new life in less demanding applications — storing renewable energy generated during off-peak hours, for example.

This is precisely what Ed Kjaer of SoCal Edison told me when I toured the SCE "smart garage". The large battery packs will have a long afterlife storing kWh from off peak charging at night in your garage or anyplace you can safely store the batteries. In the near future, we will all be on Time of Use (TOU) utility rates, so any energy we use during peak load times will be much more expensive than energy used at night.

Charging these large battery packs at night on 8 cent/kWh energy and using it to offset 40 cent energy the next day could prove quite lucrative. Therefore, when you replace your EV's battery pack with a new one after 7-10 years, the old pack may be worth hundreds, or even thousands of dollars as a storage pack in your house, or at a commercial building where many packs are strung together. It's this value that Nissan, and everyone else, wants to know.

 

As most you know, renewable energy is an integral part of the move to electric vehicles. Even though studies show that charging an EV from the existing grid is still much cleaner than driving a gas car, the goal is to run our cars on renewable electricity to the extent possible. One of the drawbacks to renewable energy is the intermittency of solar and wind. While this isn't much of a problem with solar since the peak demand for electricity closely follows solar production, it is a problem for wind. Wind is typically strongest at night when the grid has considerable excess capacity and prices are low.

Storing this low cost energy for the following day is therefore of great value to the utilities. Not only does it allow them to add to their portfolio of renewables, which they must do to meet ever more stringent environmental laws, but it can reduce the need to use expensive natural gas "peaker" plants.

Southern California Edison (SCE), the largest investor owned utility here in SoCal, has applied for a Department of Energy grant to utilize a massive battery storage unit supplied by MIT start up, A123 Systems, in an 8,000 sq ft building in the Tehachapi region of California. SCE intends to have as much as 4,500 megawatts of wind energy in this region by 2015. Plug-in vehicles will be charging mostly at night and will therefore constitute an ever growing market for this energy, but the numbers will be small for some time to come. It's necessary to store as much of this energy as possible so that we don't end up with the same problem they have in Texas and other states with their prodigious wind farms generating so many kiloWatt hours that the market can't absorb them and the price drops to zero. With daytime costs of kWh reaching into the 30-40 cent range, it make sense to store this clean energy for use during times of peak load. See the whole story here.

On a related note, northern California's Pacific Gas and Electric, has applied for a grant to study the use of compressors to pump air into underground storage reservoirs with this excess night time wind energy, then using the stored compressed air to turn turbines the next day to generate kWh for peak demand. Same idea, different storage mechanism.

It remains to be seen how efficient these two techniques will be, but it's a good use of our federal tax dollars in my opinion.

(Want to read more? Go to my new blog, EVs & Energy.).

This is a guest post by Jesse Prentice-Dunn of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Program.

Cash for Clunkers ended with a bang this Monday, finishing a frantic month for dealers and consumers alike. Now that the dust is settling, lots of people are asking “What really happened?” A quick glance at statistics released yesterday by the Department of Transportation (PDF) reveals quite a bit.

Participating consumers valued fuel economy. Clunkers traded averaged 15.8 miles per gallon (mpg), while vehicles purchased averaged 24.9 mpg. The 9.2 mpg difference means that the average consumer increased the miles per gallon of their vehicle by 58%.

Consumers replaced trucks and SUVs with cars. Of the vehicles traded in under Cash for Clunkers, 84% were trucks and SUVs, while 59% of purchased vehicles were cars. Furthermore, the top 10 models that were traded in were all SUVs and trucks; conversely, nine of the ten best selling models were cars.

The program spurred auto sales (including domestics). This $3 billion program resulted in sales of 690,000 new vehicles. Of these vehicles, 38.6% were manufactured by the Detroit 3. General Motors and Ford sold the second and third most vehicles under the program of any manufacturer, respectively.

Clunkers brought fuel economy and its benefits to the dinner table. Now for something that isn’t as easily quantifiable. Cash for Clunkers captured the public’s attention in a way that few government programs have. It was widely discussed, heavily covered in the media, and many rushed to participate. More importantly, the basic fuel economy requirements of the program created a national discussion and understanding of the benefits of efficient vehicles – reducing our dependence on oil, curbing global warming, and saving money at the pump.

A more efficient fleet will reduce global warming pollution. While the Cash for Clunkers program was designed primarily to stimulate auto sales and did not contain stringent fuel economy requirements, it is clear that consumer decisions over the short life of the program will result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Using our Sierra Club Cash for Clunkers Calculator, we estimate that the average consumer will save $664 per year at today’s gas prices and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by roughly 2 tons. Given all the vehicles sold, the program will reduce oil consumption by roughly 186 million gallons and save more than $458 million.

In a more in-depth analysis, Dr. Rick Larrick at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business estimates that, on average, vehicles purchased under Cash for Clunkers will pay down their carbon debt from manufacturing within the first 35,000 miles of driving and reduce greenhouse gas emissions thereafter.

So what’s under the hood? Over the past month Cash for Clunkers spurred sales of more efficient vehicles, taken hundreds of thousands of inefficient trucks and SUVs off of the road, and led to broad public discussion of fuel economy. With 250 million vehicles on the road that, on average, get only 20.8 mpg, we have a long way to go to transforming the fleet, but Cash for Clunkers shows that when it comes to the benefits of efficient vehicles – reducing oil consumption, cutting global warming emissions and saving money at the pump – consumers get it.

My good friend, Bill Moore of EV World, reports that China's BYD (Build Your Dreams) is planning on bringing their E6 EV to the U.S. market a full year ahead of time to compete with the roll out of Nissan's Leaf and GM's Volt. As reported earlier, BYD is the Chinese battery company that decided to build cars around it's Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. They were the first in the world to begin selling a plug-in hybrid version (only in China so far), and now this pure electric version is expected to hit showrooms in the U.S. some time next year.

Warren Buffet's purchase of 9.9% of BYD last year catapulted the company to global prominence in the car world, especially after BYD stated that it intended to become a world leader in electric vehicles.

Mr. Green is always reading his mail. Go to his blog to read how he answers this letter:

Hey Mr. Green,

While I very much appreciate your cash for clunkers calculator, I very much doubt I can afford a new car even with a clunker rebate. So I'm shopping for a moderately priced used car. I want high mileage, but also reasonable safety and reliability. I plan to look at back issues of Consumer Reports to try to estimate miles per gallon of various models I'm considering. Is there anything besides MPG that I should consider to keep my carbon footprint low as possible? Anything else I need to look for?  Any pertinent websites you can direct me to?

The New York Times reported today that Toyota could be falling behind its rivals in the race to go electric. They specifically mentioned rivals Mitsubishi, Nissan, Tesla and GM, but could have listed a dozen others (see Plug In America's EV Tracker for a complete list).

“The time is not here,” Masatami Takimoto, Toyota’s executive vice president, said during a factory tour this year. Electric cars “face many challenges,” he said, adding that “to commercialize pure E.V.’s, we need a battery that far exceeds the current technology.”

Coming from a VP of Toyota, this is an absurd comment. I'm still driving a Toyota-made EV that was designed over a decade ago. Hundreds of these RAV4 EVs continue running perfectly, and I can assure you these are not secondary vehicles but the primary vehicle for the families that own them. To make a comment like this doesn't show ignorance, there's something else behind it.

“In a world where vehicles run on electrons rather than hydrocarbons, the automakers will have to reinvent their businesses,” Russell Hensley, an analyst at the consulting company McKinsey, told clients in a recent report.

True statement.

Toyota executives rattle off reasons to be skeptical of electric cars: They do not travel far enough on a charge; their batteries are expensive and not reliable; the electrical infrastructure is not in place to recharge them.

How far is far enough? Over 80% of American drivers don't exceed 40 miles a day. Tens of millions never drive long distances, and of those who do, a plug-in hybrid would suffice.

The batteries are costly, I'll give him that, but the prices are getting lower every day. As for not reliable, of all the RAVs Toyota has put on the road, virtually none have had battery failures. The batteries are exceptionally reliable.

This last bit about the infrastructure is laughable. The electric grid is everywhere. The cost and effort to install a charge station in a garage or driveway is minimal. The public charging will be built out as the cars are delivered. I recently attended a stakeholder's meeting at Plug In 2009 in Long Beach, CA where utilities, automakers and city planners were all discussing how they were going to build out home, workplace and public charge stations over the coming years. Toyota wasn't in the room. Maybe they should attend these conferences. They'd learn a lot and maybe stop making such boneheaded statements.

"Even when electric cars are sold widely, the company says, they will be suitable only for short trips and serve a decidedly niche market."

Short trips constitute the vast majority of all trips. A car suited for short trips of less than 100-200 miles per day does not serve a niche market, it serves the majority market.

"Meanwhile, Toyota’s new president, Akio Toyoda, has become a big promoter of the company’s fuel cells, which he calls the 'ultimate' technology."

A huge mistake!

“You don’t see many competing technologies survive in a key market for very long,” said Mr. Shimizu, the Keio University professor. And more often than not in the history of innovation, a change in the dominant technology means a change in the market leader. “Electric cars are a disruptive technology, and Toyota knows that,” Mr. Shimizu said. “I wouldn’t say Toyota is killing the electric vehicle. Perhaps Toyota is scared.”

Here's what I think. Toyota is working feverishly on an EV to compete with Nissan's Leaf. They are going to release the plug-in Prius late next year to compete with the Volt. In the meantime, they'll make public statements about how the batteries and the infrastructure aren't ready to try and damp enthusiasm for plug-ins so they can continue to sell their hybrid models to the very demographic who are likely plug-in buyers. Then watch what they say when they hit the market with their own EVs.

On Saturday, Kevin Czinger, CEO of Coda, the new American car company that split off from Miles Automotive, brought the prototype of their new highway capable EV to our Electric Vehicle Assoc. meeting in Diamond Bar, CA. I have been following this car for over three years since hearing about it in the spring of 2006. Back then, I was told it would be available in a couple of years, but as these things go, it's still a year from delivery. Kevin assured us delivery would begin in August of 2010, putting this one ahead of both Nissan's Leaf and the Chevy Volt. He said they plan on selling about 2,000 units the first year thinking that will break into 40% fleet sales and 60% private. In year two, they will be prepared to make up to 20,000 cars.

The Coda's styling isn't going to turn heads on the highway, but since I often get asked why EVs have to look "so weird", I expect the vanilla styling will suit quite a few folks just fine. It's along the lines of a Toyota Corolla in size and looks. The fit and finish was better than I expected since it is coming off an assembly line in China. It appears the Chinese are improving quickly in this regard. Ultimately, they want to manufacture and assemble the Coda in California.

The range is a solid 100 miles based on the US06 driving cycle, a much more realistic test than the old EPA ratings used.

The Bicycle group on Crossroads wants pictures of your bike! Its photo gallery is already pretty impressive. On a related note, here's what a trike ride looks like if you're cruising to a fish market in Taiwan.

Now that's what I'm talking about. GM today announced its 230-mpg Chevy Volt that is in the works. That's 230, people! Wow.

The Volt, which is scheduled to start production late next year, is expected to travel up to 40 miles on electricity from a single battery charge. The company says the car can extend its range to more than 300 miles with its flex fuel-powered engine-generator.

Assuming the average cost of electricity is approximately 11 cents per kilowatt-hour in the United States, a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile.

But Autobloggreen has a legitimate question: How?

Neither General Motors nor the EPA are making declarative statements about how, exactly, the 2011 Chevy Volt will achieve it's much-touted 230 mpg rating that was announced today. GM's most clear statement [...] says that some consumers "may be able to be in pure electric mode on a daily basis without having to use any gas" and that "key to high-mileage performance is for a Volt driver to plug into the electric grid at least once each day." Without access to the actual method that the EPA is tentatively going to apply to plug-in vehicles (we have requests for clarification out to the EPA), all that GM's Dave Darovitz would tell us is that the number is "based on city cycles and we're not really talking in detail yet."

(image via autobloggreen.)

Enjoy this musical ode to public transit. And if you'd like to sing your heart out for the wonders of clean transportation, perhaps you should join the Green Transportation group here on Crossroads.

So, how did my test drive go? I've had the opportunity to drive both the Tesla Roadster and BMW's super quick Mini E, so I had to re-calibrate my expectations some, this is a delivery van after all, but I'll give them a strong B+. The acceleration was pretty good, but when the internal combustion kicked in, it was noticeable. Talking to the drivetrain team of Sean Stanley and Patrick Kaufman, they assured me that would be smoothed out soon. All in all, I was very impressed that they've come this far this fast. I fully expect they'll have the vehicle in A+ shape in a matter of months.

So, how soon will these clean-running vans begin replacing the noisy and dirty postal carriers plying our roads? Well, like Tesla Motors, they've applied for a loan from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program.  Telsa, along with Ford and Nissan have already been awarded their loans and they are all in the process of  hiring thousands in California, Michigan and Tennessee, respectively, to staff up to build plug-in vehicles and batteries. Bright has not yet heard about their loan yet, but I would be amazed if the DOE didn't see the promise I saw in this company. The fleet vehicle niche is a large one consisting of hundreds of thousands of vehicles used by private and public fleets throughout the country. The sooner these fleets get vehicles that allow them to use cleaner, cheaper, domestic electricity instead of dirty, expensive, foreign oil, the better.

(Sidenote: Read Part One.)

David Busch (right) and me after my test drive.

This nondescript building on the north side of Indianapolis is where much of the battery and drivetrain development occurred for the EV1. I wish I could have recorded John Waters' discourse on the history of his team's part in the EV1 program. Someone should write a book about it. Fascinating!

It's that time of the year again. The media are starting to pay attention to football season now that team camps are underway. And with that, you sometimes get a nugget like this, concerning Steelers linebacker James Harrison (emphasis mine):

Harrison, the NFL Defensive Player of the Year last season, often is a contrarian known for doing things his way, and he did so again Friday. While his teammates mostly piled out of large SUVs or pickup trucks, he pulled up to camp in a Smart car that was only slightly larger than Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton.

Harrison gave coach Mike Tomlin a ride in the smaller-than-subcompact vehicle that is popular in Europe, where gas prices are much higher than in the United States. And, yes, both player and coach fit in the car at the same time.

"It's not so much the gas mileage ... I just want to do something to help the environment," said Harrison, who said the car was lent by a dealer.

    

This past Friday, I got to drive an Idea.

Bright Automotive, a start up based in Anderson, Indiana, about as heartland USA as you can get, is poised to become a very successful company. I've written about them a couple of times based on news items and their own press releases, but this time, I'm writing based on first hand experience. Full disclosure, they paid my airfare and bought me lunch.

The team at Bright consists of many of the same engineers responsible for the EV1. Starting with CEO, John Waters, and including engineers like Sean Stanley and Jeff Ronning in addition to battery experts like Kurt Rogge. Several members of the team have spent time at the prestigious Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Amory Lovins' think tank in Snowmass, CO dedicated to efficiency. Other team members, such as Dave Busch, come from equally sterling backgrounds at engineering powerhouse Aerovironment where he worked on the precursor to the EV1 under the tutalege of "Engineer of the Century", Paul MacCready, whose biography is entitled, "Doing More With Less". This seemed to be the mantra at Bright Automotive, a company with one of the most competent teams of EV engineers anywhere.

They are singularly focused on one goal, to make the most efficient and cost effective plug-in hybrid delivery van in the world.

I was surprised to learn that much of the work on the EV1 had been conducted in nearby Indianapolis. Turns out, Indiana has been home to over a hundred car companies in years past and once vied with Detroit as the car capitol of the U.S. John Waters drove me to a nondescript group of buildings on the north side of Indianapolis where he told me he had worked on the battery pack that powered the EV1 and spoke at length of the historic efforts of their team that created the "Car That Could".

Toward the end of "Who Killed the Electric car?", Ralph Nader lambasts GM executives for their part in killing the EV1, but he pointedly excepted the engineers who he says really did want to make a better car. These are the guys Nader was talking about.

After GM's bean counters unceremoniously killed the EV program, Waters spent some time at RMI where he again got the bug to get back into electric vehicles. RMI's "Hypercar" program had piqued his interest in efficient vehicles, and a key meeting with Amory Lovins and people from Google and ALCOA convinced him to make the leap. They arranged a meeting with the head of the postal service's fleet services and came away convinced they could make a plug-in hybrid that could economically compete with existing postal delivery trucks and save a lot of energy in the process. In early 2008, Waters assembled his team with ex-EV1 engineers from RMI, Aerovironment and at least one protege of Professor Andy Frank of UC Davis, the "Grandfather of the plug-in hybrid".  Thus was born Bright Automotive.

With Paul MacCready's "do more with less" mantra constantly in mind, they set about to design a vehicle that could haul a full ton of cargo with 180 cubic feet of space, yet travel up to 30 miles on electric power alone before the internal combustion engine kicked in. This would enable most postal vehicles to deliver their routes without burning any gas, and allow fleet operators needing more range to average as much as 100 mpg.

The key to success lay in doing this without making the vehicle cost too much relative to the existing internal combustion vehicles. With a judicious use of aluminum for the frame and skin, they were able to keep the weight to a remarkably low 3200 lbs, and their design team managed a drag coefficient of less than .3, very slick for a delivery van. This meant they could achieve their 30 mile all-electric range with a very modest 10 kWh battery pack.

The team is replete with experts in design and drivetrains, but it's their battery expertise that sets them apart from most start ups of this nature. They have decided to remain agnostic as to the cell manufacturer and will try out any LiIon cell that comes their way, although they are currently using lithium iron phosphate cells from EIG in Korea. Their testing equipment is the state of the art ABC 150 from Aerovironment which can replicate charging profiles of an infinite nature, and their dynometer room can test batteries in both hot and cold weather conditions. Their expertise with batteries is such that they will offer to package cells into battery packs for hire since not all OEMs have their depth of knowledge.

(Update: Here's Part Two of my test drive.)

• The fleetwide average fuel economy of new vehicles sold under the program is 22 percent higher than the average fuel economy of all new vehicles sold in 2008
• Almost 60 percent of new sales were passenger cars
• 34.8 percent were SUVs and light trucks
• Only 5.5 percent were the big trucks that posed a concern for us
• The average voucher was $4,237, which means that the vast majority of sales are for more efficient vehicles that qualify for the higher voucher value of $4,500
• Another 100,000-130,000 vouchers can be processed before the $1 billion is fully spent

Cong. Ed Markey also reported some stats from the program:

• During the week that the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program was launched, GM’s small car sales increased 54.8 percent over the preceding week
• The leading Ford vehicle being purchased under the program is the 28 mpg Ford Focus at nearly 30 percent of all Ford sales
• Toyota reports that 78% of their Cash for Clunkers volume were the Corolla, Prius, Camry, RAV 4 and Tacoma, with a resulting average of 30 mpg
• Hyundai is reporting a 59 percent increase in fuel economy compared to the old vehicle—which averaged 140,000 miles

Don't listen to the talking points spouted off by the opponents - this is turning out to be an extremely successful program.

"What we’ve learned is that American consumers are choosing vehicles with much higher fuel efficiency than is required," said Sen. Feinstein in her news release. "To date, it has proved to be both a stimulus and a fuel efficiency program. It’s clear that consumers are trading in their old, inefficient trucks for more fuel efficient vehicles. That’s really a credit to the American people who understand that the price of gas is on the rise and that improved mileage is important."

...and other helpful tips on bike commuting.

The new Cash for Clunkers government program is up and running. And we even designed a nifty calculator to help you figure potential savings. Take a look at our Cash for Clunkers group here on Crossroads.

But, alas, the program has its critics. And the good folks at 40MPG.org are miffed:

Looks like the government is taking a bad idea and making it even worse.  We've said from the start that the "cash-for-clunkers" legislation was a mistake.  Now it appears the EPA is changing the fuel economy ratings of many older vehicles so some become ineligible and others that did not qualify before now do.  It's turning into a real mess for consumers, especially those who tried to take advantage of the legislation early now find they either have to return the new car or pay $4,500 more.

 

You know the feeling. Your car is a piece of junk. Its once shiny hue has faded. It's a polluting machine. It makes funny noises. You thank God every time you complete your trip without breaking down.

Now's your chance. The newly-launched Cash for Clunkers program encourages owners of old gas guzzlers to trade in their vehicle for a $3,500-$4,500 voucher toward the purchase of new, more efficient vehicle.

Hey look! There's now a Cash for Clunkers group on Crossroads. The group has a nifty calculator posted that you can use to calculate your savings should you choose to take advantage of the program. Join the group and post a picture of your clunker!

Also for your benefit is this little graph, courtesy fueleconomy.gov.  

Have questions about the program? Click here for more info.

The Climate Ride is approaching (Sept 26-30), and they've let us know about a fantastic guest blog post that describes more about the ride and who's taking it on.

Over at the 1Sky blog the co-founder of the Climate Ride wrote a post where you can read more about the 200 cyclists taking the 300 mile ride in September to raise awareness about global warming. And if you want to know even more, then check out the Climate Ride website and get involved if it's coming through your town!

I'm probably going to seem a little Nissan-centric this month what with their imminent big announcement August 2nd, but also because I, along with a few other Plug In America members spent the better part of the past three days meeting with about ten of Nissan's advanced planning team. They invited us to come to their Los Angeles facility and participate in a wide ranging series of discussions, marketing seminars and even a drive over to Santa Monica to see what a normal day driving an EV was like. They were a delightful group, younger than all of us except for Chelsea. (Full disclosure, while we gave them many hours of our time, they did treat us to one dinner.)

Today was the last day, and for me, the most interesting. They had scheduled a tour of the Southern California Edison "Smart Garage" in Pomona with the dynamic Ed Kjaer as tour leader. Ed, you may remember, gave President Obama a tour of the same facility a couple of months ago, which may account for the strong support we're seeing from his administration for plug-in cars.

SoCal Edison's Electric Vehicle department is probably the most sophisticated of its kind anywhere, and Ed runs the place. Seeing him describe how plug-ins will be integrated into the newer grid, yet to come, is to fully comprehend what our future will be like. Quiet, clean and powerful cars running on renewable electricity....

Grist reflects on the question that's on everyone's mind: How should you talk to your cranky cab driver about cap-and-trade?

He drives a cab for a living, and he sees this new legislation as a threat to that living. Maybe he thinks he’ll have to buy a new, more fuel-efficient cab or pay for the “privilege” to pollute. Maybe he believes the debunked but persistent right-wing talking points claiming that cap-and-trade would cost every American household $3,128 a year. Maybe he doesn’t believe climate change is happening. Or maybe he doesn’t quite understand how all this will affect him and the prospect of change is frightening.

Think Progress takes a stab at it.

Well, I’m not sure what the right answer is. But if you want to be very literal about it, ecological sustainability and the interests of cab drivers go hand in hand. [...]

Watchers of the auto industry (and of GM in particular) have been wondering why on earth Fritz Henderson, the head of NEW GM (fresh out of a whirlwind bankruptcy) recalled Bob Lutz out of his almost-retirement to head up creative products and customer relationships.  

Why the bewilderment?  Bob Lutz is infamously know for calling global warming a total "crock of SH-T!". Other bloggers have tracked “Lutzisms” attacking fuel economy and the ability of the industry to do better – "There is no technological bag of tricks that enable much better fuel economy than we have today," and "Despite what the alarmists may think, we don't have any magic 100-mpg carburetor that we're holding back because we're in bed with the oil companies." 

Just last Friday Lutz noted “where we really messed it up and took our eye off the ball in terms of product was in ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s.”  No wonder we tax payers have spent $40 billion to keep this company afloat.  Lutz was quick to note that he wasn’t there during those many years – but his reputation as Mr. Muscle and Power may leave us – the taxpayer owners of NEW GM – wondering whether he is the right guy to put NEW GM’s eyes back on the ball.  But the fact is that new greenhouse gas standards and accelerated fuel economy standards are a ball GM must keep its eyes on.  

To his credit, Lutz has been the champion of the Chevrolet Volt, perhaps the most advertised vehicle that isn’t even for sale.  The challenge for NEW GM and Mr. Lutz is to do more than talk up the 10s of thousands of Volts that will trickle into the market out of the nearly 10 million vehicles sold each year (even in this down market).  These will be important but are not enough to the hide millions of gas guzzlers that dominate GM's fleet. 

In the same press event in which he announced Lutz’s return to GM, Henderson noted the priorities for NEW GM – Customers, Cars, Culture.  Perhaps a fourth “C” is needed – Compliance.  The company we own much of should pledge to give the taxpayers true compliance with new standards, not compliance made possible with fuel economy credits for vehicles that can (but rarely do) run on E-85, or by borrowing, banking and trading credits that will continue to make it impossible to determine if the company we own is actually complying with the law in any given year.  But, NEW GM, with compliance as a priority, and the products Mr. Lutz will create and market, should make a pledge to actually comply with the law each year.

This post is from Jesse Prentice-Dunn with Sierra Club's Green Transportation Program.

Thinking about cashing in on the recently passed Cash for Clunkers program? Take a couple of minutes to check out the Sierra Club’s new Cash for Clunkers website to learn how to make the most out of trading in your clunker.

The Department of Transportation is currently finalizing the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Program, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Obama on June 23. The CARS program encourages owners of old gas guzzlers to trade in their vehicle for a $3,500-$4,500 voucher towards the purchase of a new, more efficient vehicle.

Unfortunately, the CARS program does little to encourage consumers to buy vehicles with the best fuel economy. Believe it or not, an owner of a 14 mpg gas guzzling truck could trade that vehicle in and get $3,500 taxpayer dollars toward the purchase of a 15 mpg gas guzzler! It’s now up to consumers to ensure that $1 billion taxpayer dollars actually go towards getting old, polluting cars off the road and replacing them with the most efficient vehicles that automakers have to offer.

If you’re participating in the CARS program, trade in your guzzler for a truly efficient vehicle. Not only will you help curb global warming, you’ll save money at the pump. Check out our 5 easy steps to get the most out of cash for clunkers and take a look at lists of the most fuel efficient cars, SUVs and hybrids on the market.

Ladies and gents: Tesla's 2011 Model S.

When I envisioned an electric car, I always pictured some vaguely boxy auto, designed for efficiency with style as something of an afterthought. Something not unlike the world's current best-selling electric car, the REVA.

That was until yesterday afternoon when I had a chance to take a ride in a Tesla Roadster. The Tesla does 0-60mph in under four seconds, and can go almost 250 miles between charges. For those with the means, that alone may be worth the $100,000 price tag. But the enthusiastic comments on the car's design we got from neighboring drivers at every red light, accompanied with their subsequent disbelief upon finding out the car didn't have a gas tank? Priceless.

Now just imagine recharging your Tesla with solar panels on the roof of your garage....

Waiting for your Tesla to be delivered? Or waiting for City CarShare to start offering the Model S? Join our unofficial Tesla Motors fan club!

This is a guest post from Jesse Prentice-Dunn of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Campaign.

Great news! After four years of waiting and a misguided rejection by the Bush Administration, the EPA has finally granted California the waiver necessary to implement its clean car standards. This is a real victory for California and the fourteen other states that have adopted the greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles.

California's standards, which require automakers to sell cleaner, more efficient vehicles, are more stringent than the current national fuel economy regulations and will cut oil consumption and global warming pollution. While new national greenhouse gas standards for vehicles will apply to vehicles in 2012-2016, this decision will allow California and other states to implement tailpipe standards in the years leading up to 2012. In 2010, automakers will have to meet California's greenhouse gas standards (PDF) in California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.  In 2011, Maryland and New Mexico will join the program.

It's important to note that California retains the Clean Air Act authority to set global warming standards in the future. In adopting clean car standards, California has proven that it can lead the nation in developing policies that will curb global warming and drive innovation.

Also, check out California's Environmental Performance label for vehicles (the image above), which allows consumers to see how a new vehicle stacks up against others in terms of greenhouse gas and smog forming emissions. Eight states have adopted California's Environmental Performance label. While automakers must make cleaner vehicles, providing consumers with this information will allow them to factor global warming and pollution into their purchasing decisions.

So happy Waiver Day, everyone! Granting the California waiver is yet another concrete step by the Obama Administration to reduce emissions – let's keep this snowball rolling downhill!

This week's post from Sierra Club Media Intern Natalie Gaber

In case you hadn’t noticed, life is more expensive these days, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any cheaper.

As a Berkeley resident commuting to San Francisco three days a week, I’ve especially noticed this cost-of-living increase in public transportation Three of the Bay Area’s largest public transportation agencies, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), AC Transit, and MUNI, are all sticking customers with fare increases starting July 1.

BART, the local subway system, is faced with a $249 million budget deficit over the next four years and is implementing a 6.1% cost-of-living based fare increase, which amounts to an average fare increase of 20 cents.

AC Transit, the East Bay bus system, and MUNI, San Francisco’s public transit agency, are engaging in similar fare increases. Fares will soon rise for both agencies by 25 to 50 cents. 

To add insult to injury, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that AC Transit is considering service cuts of up to 15%, which translates to 905 hours of weekday operation and 458 hours of weekend operations disappearing. Clarence Johnson, spokesman for AC Transit, says he hopes the cuts won’t be “too draconian,” but who is he kidding? If AC Transit revenue is down, then they should be providing incentives for people to ride the bus, not reasons to avoid the bus (i.e. increasing fares and cutting service). 

The epidemic of rising fares and service cuts for public transit is not unique to San Francisco, or even to California. The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Capital Metro system in Austin, Texas, the  Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and countless other agencies across the nation are hiking fares and slashing service, all in the name of hulking budget deficits.

So, what’s a working girl to do? 

The answer: bike to work.

Fortunately, biking in San Francisco is set to get a whole lot easier if all goes according to plan. After a 3-year battle between various city agencies, organizations, and courts, approval is expected this week for a plan to improve biking conditions on San Francisco’s streets. According to the Chronicle, the approval would give a green light for the city to start striping 34 miles worth of new bike lanes, installing bike racks, and engaging in 46 other neighborhood-specific projects, such as removing traffic lanes on Second Street and prohibiting left hand turns at various intersections. All these plans are consistent with San Francisco’s “transit first” policy, which has been mandated by voters and encourages alternatives to personal car transportation.

San Francisco’s plans come in the wake of similar measures taken by New York City, where the Department of Transportation is already leading the way for bike-friendly cities with its “Sustainable Streets” program. The program includes expanding “alternative mobility strategies,” such as biking, and D.O.T. Commissioner Sadik-Khan says that NYC is poised to “become the biking capital of the nation.” This is a bold claim, but with over 200 miles of new bike lanes installed in the city and a public bike-sharing program in the works, Sadik-Khan may be justified in her audacity. Other cities, such as Portland, Oregon, have enacted similarly impressive bike programs, showing that bicycle commuting is feasible, and, given the current state of the financial world, an increasingly attractive alternative.

The bottom line: public transportation is expensive, and it’s about to get more expensive. It’s still cheaper than driving in most circumstances, and it definitely has a lower carbon footprint, so if faced with the choice between driving somewhere and taking public transportation, definitely opt for the latter. But, whenever possible, your go-to transportation method should involve two wheels and a set of handlebars. It’s free, it’s convenient (and getting more convenient every day), it’s good exercise, and it’s downright fun.

This is a guest post from Ann Mesnikoff, head of the Sierra Club's Green Transportation Campaign.

Yesterday President Obama signed the bill that includes the "Cash for Clunkers" program into law. So, what are we getting? For one thing, this is a smaller program – one billion taxpayer dollars toward the purchase of new vehicles in exchange for retiring “clunkers” – instead of the original four billion dollar proposal. But the fact remains that the overall structure of the program is overly weak when it comes to ensuring taxpayer dollars go toward the purchase of gas "sippers." 

The Environmental Protection Agency will have just a few weeks to issue the rules that will govern this program. Cash for Clunkers will be coming to a dealer near you soon!

The one thing we can do is urge those who turn in gas guzzling clunkers – vehicles that travel 18 miles to the gallon or less – is to use their vouchers toward the purchase of the most fuel efficient of vehicles on dealer lots.  There are plenty of cars to chose from – the Chevy Malibu (conventional and hybrid), the Ford Focus, the Chevy Cobalt, and more. Let’s not forget that GM advertises that it has more models that get over 30 miles to the gallon (on the highway) – but still, the point is that a $4,500 voucher should help consumers buy the best fuel economy. 

Gas prices are going to go up.  We need to end our addiction to oil and curb global warming pollution.  This Cash for Clunkers program could subsidize the sale of 250,000 new cars – let’s make sure those are 250,000 efficient ones!

We've been waiting for several months to hear this good news. Three EV pioneers, Tesla, Nissan and Ford, are receiving loans from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. Totaling $8 billion, the funds will be used to manufacture efficient vehicles and electric drive components.

In Tesla's case, they'll receive a total of $465 million to set up their factory in Southern California for the production of their hot Model S. This car has generated a lot of interest given its superb styling, performance and efficiency. The price point of $57K makes it affordable for a large segment of the population. Part of the money will be used to set up a production line for their battery packs and electric drive trains to be sold to other manufacturers such as their new partner, Daimler.

Nissan will receive $1.6 billion to build EV and battery factories in Tennessee. Having experienced the drive train for their new EV, I am very pleased that this will enable them to ramp up quickly to 150,000 EVs annually. This car will appeal to a larger segment of the population given its price of around $30K.

Ford is the big surprise for me. They're getting the lion's share of the money at $5.9 billion. They'll use it to increase the efficiency of several of their cars and trucks. I assume some will go toward building their new EV with the help of Canadian parts supplier, Magna.

This announcement assures that large numbers of electric vehicles will be available to U.S. customers starting late next year and growing rapidly soon after. Additionally, tens of thousands of jobs will be created.

There will more announcements to come. I'm betting that Bright Automotive in Indiana will be on the next list of recipients. They sure deserve to be.

Bob Schildgen, aka Mr. Green, gives advice on the wisdom of buying a Prius, considering that the batteries are toxic. It's worth reading his whole blog post. Here's a snippet:

The fuss about Prius batteries is because they're made of nickel. Thirty years ago, Canada's nickel-mining industry was particularly toxic, but our northerly neighbors have since cleaned up their mining mess. Only a fraction of the world's nickel is used for batteries, and those made for Priuses (Prii?) are recyclable. For a fuller refutation of this and other myths about the Prius, go to tinyurl.com/mrgreenprius.

However, don't rush out to buy a $22,000 Prius unless you have unlimited funds. You might net greater energy savings by purchasing a cheaper but still-efficient car[.]

Are you looking to green your transportation? Perfect! Join the Green Transportation group and the I Want a Plug-in Hybrid or an Electric Car group here on Crossroads.

I heard that Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, was giving the commencement address at CalTech, so I jumped in our solar-powered RAV and drove over to Pasadena to hear what he had to say.

Pasadena is a beautiful city, and the section of town where CalTech is located is old and very wealthy. Walking through the leafy campus, Jacarandas in full bloom, I admired the buildings that for decades housed some of the smartest students our country ever produced as well as a sizable number of foreign kids intent on getting the best education possible in their chosen fields of mathematics, science and engineering. My anticipation over Dr. Chu's speech grew with each step.

He did not disappoint.

Those of us in the EV movement were overjoyed when Obama picked Dr. Chu to head the Energy Department. An actual Nobel-winning PhD in physics who has a deep understanding of our predicament regarding energy and climate change in charge of the Energy Department. A true breath of fresh air!

He broke the ice by defining the term, nerd, using the Wikipedia definition, since most in his audience proudly considered themselves as such. I think it's actually on the form when you apply to CalTech.

Having dispensed with the obligatory humorous start, he got down to business by reminding the audience that, in the early 70's, scientists solved the pressing need to grow more food in order to keep millions from starvation and expressed that our problems today are every bit as important if not more so. He implored the students to take seriously the need to act fast in solving these problems and to not allow those who prefer faith over reason to interfere with the task at hand.

As one would expect, he talked about energy mostly, but my ears pricked up when he said we needed to prepare for the "inevitable transition to electricity as the energy for our personal transportation". While most may have missed the importance of this comment, it meant everything to me. Those at the top of the Obama administration understand the need to move from dirty fossil fuels to renewable electricity, and their efforts so far show they are serious.

Chu's defunding, at the federal level, of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle means he knows we need to put our efforts toward solutions that are ready now, not some expensive, inefficient technology that requires us to continue buying our energy from oil companies.

As the speech ended and I started to go, the strains of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Ode to Joy" flowed out of the loud speakers and I walked through the beautiful purple flowering Jacarandas happier than I've been for a while. Maybe these scientists, engineers and mathematicians can indeed help us to ward off the worst of what will come.

Chevron CEO Dave O'Reilly (left) listens to Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

As promised here is a video clip from last night's debate - where Carl Pope gets Dave O'Reilly to agree to work with him against the coal industry.

Last night out in San Francisco was a long-awaited debate between our own executive director Carl Pope and Chevron CEO Dave O'Reilly. The debate was organized by the Commonwealth Club.

We expect to have video highlights of the discussion later on today, but for now I can at least point you toward some good news articles about the debate.

First up - my favorite story on it, from Reuters: "Chevron CEO Says U.S. 2050 Carbon Goals Too Ambitious." Why is it my favorite? Because it includes this excellent back and forth between the two:

Nice!

And then we've got four other articles up so far:
CNN Money article
GreenTech Media article
KTVN TV blurb
CBS-TV blurb (Great video clip with this one, right side of the screen)

Stay tuned for video clips later today!

Whether you play them or ride them, bicycles emit zero carbon. Here's a young Frank Zappa playing the bike on Steve Allen's show.

Join the bicycle group on Crossroads and post a picture of your instrument, er, bike.

(For the video, a hat tip to BoingBoing.)

Here's the EcoGeek's take on GM's bankruptcy and what it means for green cars.

This is a guest post by Jesse Prentice-Dunn of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Campaign.

Usually I look forward to Tuesdays because of my evening softball league; however, next Tuesday promises to be more exciting. On June 9th, the EPA will hold a public hearing in Washington, DC, on its proposed Renewable Fuel Standard. The proposed regulations will oversee a Congressionally-mandated increase in biofuels, from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. Importantly, for the first time the EPA will require biofuels to reduce their life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to gasoline.

In the hearing on Tuesday, the EPA will be asking the public to comment on the agency's program to increase the use of biofuels. We're expecting that turnout will be high and that testimony will be both  highly critical and supportive of the EPA's plans.

Here’s a quick preview:

For the past two weeks, Colin Peterson, the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee in the House of Representatives, has threatened to work to defeat comprehensive energy and climate legislation unless extensive changes are made to the RFS to eliminate environmental safeguards and further prop up the corn ethanol industry. Peterson's bluster is no laughing matter, as the entire House Agriculture Committee has co-sponsored his bill (HR 2409). Similar viewpoints asking the EPA to ignore science and environmental safeguards will no doubt be expressed at Tuesday's hearing.

The recent spotlight on biofuels has made the EPA's hearing that much more important. We'll be at the EPA's hearing to show that the public supports a strong, science-based standard that makes sure biofuels reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and are a part of the solution to global warming, not the problem. It is imperative we increase our use of biofuels responsibly by taking a big picture account of the full lifecycle emissions of these fuels - from the field to the tailpipe, including consequences for land use as we grow more crops for fuel.

Get involved and join our new Green Transportation group on Climate Crossroads for more information.

New production electric cars are being delivered at a rate of 100 per month. Teslas mostly, like you see here in the picture. But, the first BMW MINI E was also delivered last week, and we'll have about 500 more of them on the road within the month.
 
Back in 1999, when we were all a twitter about Y2K, there were about 5,000 production EVs on California roads with a few dozen more in both Arizona and Georgia. Then they were gone. All but a thousand or so survived the crusher and have been proving themselves for 6-10 years by driving millions of oil-free, noise-free miles.
 
As we watch the first thousand of the new breed of EVs enter, and by doing so, double our national fleet, we can take heart that this meager trickle of cars will grow into a flow of thousands of EVs within the next 24 months. Then, everyone on this list can get one. Yahoo!
 
Each EV will replace a gas burner, thereby reducing the pollution we all breathe and the demand for oil which will keep the costs down for all of us.
 
How long before the number of plug-in cars outnumbers the gas burners? I think it'll happen some time around 2022, give or take. Of course, you can help your community get there earlier by getting in line early for yours.
 
BTW, the Tesla in the picture above was delivered to a friend of mine here in Santa Monica. For about $13,000 he bought enough solar to generate all the energy he'll need for driving his Tesla 12,000 miles per year for at least 50 years! There undoubtedly will be a succession of EVs charging from those panels.
 
If you have the right roof for it, solar is cost effective now. And as the price of gas goes up, it'll only get more cost effective.

PV/EV -- Get it?

From HuffPost:

During the first quarter of 2009, more bicycles were sold in the US than cars and trucks. While the Great Recession is hurting bike sales, they didn't fall as fast as automobiles. Around 2.6 million bicycle purchases were made, compared to ~2.5 million cars and trucks that left our nation's lots.

Did you buy a bike this past year? Post a picture of it here. 

From the prescient reporters at The Onion:

Boy, it wasn't that long ago that VW was teaming with Toshiba to make drive systems for EVs. Now, VW is teaming with China's BYD (Build Your Dreams) to "explore the possibility of collaborating in the field of electric vehicles and batteries."

These kinds of collaborations between battery and car companies are getting commonplace.

Volkswagen also said in the statement that it has shown an electric car prototype to BYD, which could possibly indicate that the German carmaker would either build or buy an inexpensive assembly plant in China to build the electric car, which could be later showcased in this year's motor show in Frankfurt.

Add to this the tier one supplier, Canadian company, Magna that has developed a full EV based on the Ford Focus platform and is offering to build it for any other platform of similar size. Everyone's cutting deals to get in on the action. China is clearly gunning for the lead, and with BYD leading the way, they'll be hard to stop.

Does your mode of transportation clutter? Here's an image that'll put it in perspective.

Bicycle - 90 sq. m for 71 people to park their bikes.
Car - 1000 sq. m for 72 people to park their care (avg. occupancy of 1.2 people per car).
Bus - 30 sq m for the bus.

(A hat tip for Sullivan's blog.)

Remember just a few short months ago, we were demanding that "green strings" be attached to the billions we were about to give GM and Chrysler? Now this:

"The goal is to ensure that cars and trucks sold in America will be nearly 40 percent cleaner and more efficient by 2016."

Why is this happening now?

Because the government is providing loans to help U.S. automakers survive, the Obama administration is in the driver's seat to make these demands of automobile manufacturers.

Fourteen states — including California — and the District of Columbia have been bucking for higher standards. And the Supreme Court has ruled that under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency must take steps to curtail greenhouse gases. Increasing efficiency with a stick works, but it's not as elegant as a carrot. While I love that CAFE standards are rising, the most effective method of increasing efficiency and reducing pollution is to make the dirty energy cost what it costs society.

In the spirit (or lacking spirit) of last week's Bike to Work Day, George Will, the popular WashPost op-ed writer -- who constantly gets his global warming facts wrong -- focused his recent column on the nauseating idea of biking to work, something endorsed by transportation secretary Ray LaHood.

[LaHood] says he has joined a "transformational" administration: "I think we can change people's behavior." Government "promoted driving" by building the Interstate Highway System—"you talk about changing behavior." He says, "People are getting out of their cars, they are biking to work." [...]

Does LaHood really think Americans were not avid drivers before a government highway program "promoted" driving? Does he think 0.01 percent of Americans will ever regularly bike to work?

Well George, your numbers are a bit off.

Will claims to find it unbelievable that as many as 0.01 percent of Americans would ever bike to work regularly. But rather than tossing off ridicule, he might have looked up the Census Bureau’s statistics on commuting patterns and seen that right now 0.4 percent of commuters normally get to work on bicycles. Now that’s a small percentage. But it’s forty times larger than a percentage that Will deems unrealistically utopian.

And if you're a part of that .4 percent -- or considering it -- join the bicycle group here on Crossroads.

But since Better Place went to the trouble of building this thing, how well does it work?

If you watch the video, it shows a Nissan sport utility vehicle driving into a small facility where a mechanized device unlatches the battery pack and replaces it with a fully charged one. The whole operation takes slightly over a minute, two minutes if you count driving into and out of the facility. Presumedly, payment is automated, so you never need to get out of the car, well, unless you gotta pee.

That sure compares well with filling up a gas tank, but I still wonder about its feasibility.

Hey, it's Bike to Work Day! Post a photo of your bike here. Also, read how to commute by bike.

Route 66 has a lot of history associated with it -- especially the Dust Bowl years chronicled by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath, but this trip also provided many opportunities to reflect on America's current transportation and energy issues.

Let's set aside that our trip started during a record April heat wave in Southern California that saw 100-degree temperatures. We don't want to confuse weather and climate change, after all. Still... we weren't expecting Mohave-desert temperatures while still in Beverly Hills!

Right from Route 66, you can see many different ways of generating power. In California, it's hard to miss the giant solar installation in the Mohave desert. Near Joseph City, AZ, we rode right past the Cholla coal-fired power plant (pictured below). Even more sobering was the sight a few hours later of a long train of coal cars piled high with fuel for that same plant (Route 66 and the railroad run in tandem through most of the Southwest). Then, in New Mexico, it's windmills dotting the distant mesas and even towering over the Community College in Tucumcari. That last turbine is being used to train future wind-turbine technicians (as well as power the college).

Tucumcari, like Winslow, AZ, and Barstow, CA, also has a grand old passenger-rail terminal -- reminders of a time when passenger rail was still a thriving industry. When you compare an old Harvey House railroad hotel such as the newly restored La Posada with the offerings off the Interstate, it's hard not to mourn what was lost when we turned our back on passenger rail. Sixty years ago, you could take a train from Tucumcari to Amarillo, TX, for a day's shopping. These days, the Interstate is your only option. 

Listen closely... that sound you hear is the banging of the final nail in the fuel cell coffin. Sweet music to our ears, my friend.

Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, has determined that this technology is not practical in the near term. This vindicates Joe Romm and Alec Brooks who years ago made very strong cases against the use of fuel cells to power vehicles. I read Alec Brooks' paper (pdf) when I first got involved with EVs years ago and was immediately convinced that technology would never work for personal vehicles.

When Bush said in one of his State of the Union speeches, “the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.”, I realized that since battery electric vehicles existed in the 1890's, a child born before the Civil War could have driven an EV. Bush's Energy Dept. then went on to waste a couple billion of our tax dollars on this boondoggle.

To make things worse, California was suckered into spending millions on its vaunted Hydrogen Highway. Terry Tamminen, an otherwise respectable environmentalist, is guilty of being the person most responsible in convincing Gov. Schwarzenegger to go down this H2 highway. The waste of tax dollars was bad enough, but worse was the wasting of nearly a decade of valuable time when we should have been improving the battery electrics that were already viable.

Lastly, this is a particularly good quote from this NYT article:

"The Obama administration will also drop spending for research on the exploration of oil and gas deposits because the industry itself has ample resources for that," Dr. Chu said.

Amen to that!

Last week, I got word that BMW was holding an event for the lessees of their Mini E. It was held two nights ago at the Science Center next to the University of Southern California, a really stellar venue when you consider the product they would be showing. I arrived at the same time as Stefano Paris, Plug In America's documentarian, and as we walked from the parking lot, we went past an SR71 Blackbird on display to get to the party. This sleek, titanium marvel can travel at mach 3.2 orders of magnitude faster than the 95 mph Mini E, a truly awesome feat of engineering. It got us in the mood to see some equally exciting engineering, this time a combination of AC Propulsion's drive system packed into the tight confines of the German engineered Mini.

There were lots of folks I knew in attendance, all of them excited that delivery was finally close. There have been delays, something we advocates of plug-ins have grown to expect. But these were happy folks, there was no mistaking it.

I got to meet Nathalie Bauters, the communications director for the Mini E program in the U.S. and she assured me the delay was only due to getting final UL approval for the plug they are using for charging. The cars have been waiting in a parking lot in Oxnard for weeks. BMW wants to make sure all of their customers have an approved and permitted charging station installed in the customers garage before delivery. This is exactly what happened when we got our Toyota RAV EV six years ago. No charger, no car.

So, it appears most, if not all of the cars will be delivered in June. These Minis, combined with the 400-500 Tesla Roadsters that will be on the road by end of June, effectively doubles the number of production highway capable EVs in the U.S. The Teslas will continue delivering at a rate of 100 per month while the Mini E customers will be the only ones in the country with these cars until the year long test phase is over and BMW cranks up the production of more.

The difference with how Nissan is approaching the EV is interesting. While BMW is taking a careful look at how its customers will be driving the cars and how they charge them, trying to see if there are any issues to deal with before committing to large numbers of EVs, Nissan is racing to get thousands on the road as fast as possible. They seem very comfortable that their car is going to be bulletproof right out of the gate. I heard today that they expect to have 5,000 Nissan EVs for sale by the end of 2010. It is expected they will expand production quickly to the tens of thousands in 2011.

We are privileged to have front row seats to observe this quickly evolving transportation technology. When you look back 20 years from now, when virtually every vehicle sold has a plug on it, you'll remember these pioneer companies as being well ahead of the curve. Tesla will be a common brand, with several well received models in all price ranges, and there will be a few proud owners of the original Apteras zipping along the freeways among all manner of new plug-in cars, trucks and even SUVs. The gas burners of today will be mostly gone, replaced with cleaner and quieter cars.

There were two more inside the building that drew crowds like this.  My good friend, Jeff U'ren, who came loaded with questions for the BMW folks and came away satisfied with the answers. The one question about whether the lessees can take the $7,500 tax credit is still to be determined. More on that later...

Bike to Work Day is next Thursday. Join the Bicycle group on Crossroads if you haven't already. Go there and post a photo of your bike!

For people who eat and breathe bicycling, there are several great bike blogs out there that I'd recommend. You might like this guy over in L.A.  The Bike Snob in New York maintains a good site. Have you heard of Bikerowave? Here's Copenhagen. And this person rides around in Amsterdam. 

Don't have a bike and want to get started? Try a garage sale. And here's info on bike sharing programs.

Check out the Tesla on Letterman. Watch his concerns that the electric car will "magnetize my nuts." For more on this clip and Tesla photos, click here.

This article from yesterday's NY Times special section called, "Business of Green", describes how our electricity has been sold for the past many decades and how it will be sold in the future. Since most people reading this will be early adopters of cars that run on kilowatt hours instead of gasoline, this is important.

The first “dumb” thing to go may be flat pricing. Today, a kilowatt-hour of electricity, enough to burn a 100-watt bulb for 10 hours, costs the same to most customers at all times, whether it is a sweltering summer afternoon or a balmy spring night. But the cost to the utility swings wildly, and the company may have to spend much more money to supply extra energy at peak times than during slack periods.

Time of use pricing (TOU) is very popular among those who buy solar systems since the cost of peak energy (noon to 9 pm for some utilities, 10 am to 6 pm for others) is much higher than off peak energy. Those peak times tend to coincide with the peak output of the solar system, so if you are generating more than the house is using, you can "sell" back to the utility at the higher rate. As I sit here in my home office, my 3 kW solar system is generating more than my house is using and Southern California Edison (SCE) is crediting me at over 30 cents per kWh for the excess energy. At night, when the sun is down, I buy those credits back, but at a much lower rate, around 10 cents kWh. That is when I charge my EV or use other heavy electrical loads.

As the people interviewed for this article attest, this incentive works very well for shifting loads from peak times to off peak times.

One thing the article did not discuss was tiered rates. In Los Angeles, the municipal utility, LADWP, charges a low flat rate no matter how many kWh you buy. In SCE territory here in Santa Monica, we pay according to how many kWh we use. The utility gives us about 300 kWh at a low price, then there are 4 more tiers of kWh at an every increasing price. The top 3 tiers are very expensive, which provides a great incentive to cut back on waste. This is also an very good incentive to go solar since the solar is paid off with the more expensive energy first.

A combination of TOU pricing and tiered rates are necessary to reduce waste and shift electric loads to off peak times.

AC Propulsion, the San Dimas, CA company that birthed the modern-day EV with its AC-150 drivetrain, was tapped by BMW last year to provide drivetrains for an initial run of 500 Minis. Dubbed the "Mini E," these fully-electric cars are just weeks from being deployed on the streets of SoCal and New York/New Jersey. I'd been promised a test drive, so when Wally Rippel (you'll remember Wally from "Who Killed the Electric Car?") called and invited me out, I jumped at the chance.
 
Wally was involved in the design of the Impact/EV1 while at Aerovironment along with Alec Brooks and the incomparable Allan Cocconi (the "AC" of AC Propulsion). Wally worked for a while helping Tesla Motors launch their Roadster and is now back at AC Propulsion working on the newest iteration of the AC-150. Rumor has it that this next one will be quite a bit more powerful than the first.
 
Wally drove me to a local restaurant for lunch so I could get familiar with the interior of the car without having to watch for traffic. The Mini is a well designed car with all the amenities one would expect of a new car these days. I was more impressed than most, probably because I'm still driving that old RAV that was never much of a luxury vehicle to begin with, and 6 years in, it hasn't gotten any more comfortable. (Zan, I might add, adores the car. Has no complaints.)

When it was my turn to drive, the first thing I noticed was the lack of a creep mode. This is what Toyota built in to the RAV to simulate a gas car.