July 2007 Archives

"If you drive a Porsche in the neighborhood and everyone is . . . saying you are environmentally unfriendly, that is not good for us," Michael H. Leiters, the head of the Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker's hybrid program.

Porsche, in conjunction with Volkswagens and Audi are working to develop a hybrid SUV by 2010. The Cayenne which is supposed to reduce the vehicle's fuel consumption by almost one-third.

Greenpeace protested the company's production at its plant in Zuffenhausen last week, accusing it of building "climate pigs." Porsche noted in response that in Germany, less than 12 percent of all exhaust emissions come from passenger cars, with Porsche's share less than 1/10th of 1 percent. Boston Globe

Changing oil too often is a waste of money, resources, and adds to the pollution stream.

Vehicle manufacturers have extended oil change intervals as engines run cleaner and synthetic oil is more durable. With the exception of Toyota, which has shortened the oil change interval which makes no sense other than to bolster the profit stream, all major vehicle manufactures have extended their oil change interval. Adding up the cost of needless oil changes can add to the cost of running a vehicle.

Automaker----------2008 model recommendations

General Motors----Variable/indicator light
Honda-----------------Variable/indicator light
Chrysler--------------Variable/indicator light
BMW------------------15,000 miles
Mercedes-Benz----12,000 miles
Porsche---------------12,000 miles
Volkswagen---------10,000 miles
Ford--------------------7,500 miles
Hyundai---------------7,500 miles
Nissan----------------7,500 miles
Toyota----------------5,000 miles
usatoday.com/money

Determining the oil maintenance interval can be difficult when changing oil is a steady revenue stream for dealerships. To maintain your warranty, follow the maintenance schedule in the book that came with your car.

My own experience at the local Honda dealer has been somewhat bazaar...

In a win for the eco-system, the largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives by Portland General Electric.

see a video of the dam blowing up

Marmot Dam a 58-foot-high structure, originally built in 1909, will be removed and the site restored as part of the decommissioning of the entire Bull Run project.

Removing the two dams, in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations, will allow the Sandy to flow freely from Mt. Hood to the Columbia River. Winter steelhead, spring Chinook and coho salmon, all listed on the federal Endangered Species Act, need free flowing rivers to survive.
marmotdam.com

Japan's Toyota Motor Corp said Monday production of around 55,000 vehicles has been affected as a result of a temporary shutdown in its operations in the wake of last week's powerful earthquake. Toyota's Tsutsumi plant, which makes the Prius, will remain shut until an unspecified time. forbes.com

With on demand parts distribution, 'just-in-time', one link broken can mean a shut-down of an assembly line.

Eco-terrorism against huge SUVs is not exactly Guided Group Interaction, but it does reflect a critical turning point in consumer culture.

Gareth Grove bought his dream car, a flashy gray seven foot tall Hummer that was too massive to fit in his garage, so he parked it on the street of his Washington D.C. neighborhood.

It was parked there for 5 days before two masked men took a bat to every window, a knife to each 38-inch tire and scratched into the body: "FOR THE ENVIRON." Neighbor Lucille Liem, 37, who owns a Prius hybrid, said that a common sentiment in the neighborhood is that large vehicles are impractical and a strain on the Earth -- and Hummers in particular are a symbol of consumer excess.

See AP video

"The thought of somebody vandalizing it never crossed my mind," said Gareth Groves, 32, who lives with his mother in a three-story home in American University Park. "I've kind of been in shock." washingtonpost.com

There is an eco civil war playing out in neighborhoods across America. Where vigilantes who fear the excess of people buying vehicles like the Hummer will destroying the planet, while for others like Groves, "it never crossed" his mind that this battle is playing out and he might be driving a symbol of gross consumption.

An extreme of vandalism counters the eternal clueless.

Back when I was studying to be a social worker, I did an internship at a home that used Guided Group Interaction. The idea was that positive peer pressure could motivate a kid more than an adult just telling a kid not to do anti-social stuff.

Acts of eco-vandalism are the equivalent of the group of peers taking the problem kid, beating him up and locking him in the basement. It fragments communities, creates fear, and should be classified as a hate crime.

Try something creative like placing a recycled paper leaflet using can labels under the wiper every day...saying how many cars could be fueled with one Hummer, how much CO is produced, how the price of fuel would plummet if all the people who get 10 mpg drove cars that got 40...that would be educational, funny, annoying... but not destructive.

Food prices jump 23% in last 18 months and could bring interest rate hikes Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke fears

The demand, triggered in part by the increasing use of agricultural commodities to make ethanol and other substitutes for crude oil, may keep prices high for years. The OECD sees U.S. output of corn-based ethanol and European consumption of oilseeds for biofuels doubling by 2016.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's estimate for global inventories of grain are at the lowest level in 30 years in terms of days of consumption, says Carl Weinberg, chief economist for High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York. bloomberg.com

Promoted by politicians because of the money flow and loved by oil companies because they giggle inside; ethanol uses as much fossil fuel to produce as is the energy produced by ethanol (see chart below/berkeley.edu).

Snowed by marketing, the American public digests this feeding frenzy on their quality of life while another creation of those who have money and power, get more.

It would be better to take all the government subsidies used to produce ethanol, add that to the cost to the consumer in rising inflation due to food costs and invest that into wind, solar, water or anything else that doesn’t feed our ever growing, greedy commodities market. While there isn’t an immediate return of profit skimming from known markets, we might instead try and build a nation with a reputation as a leader for ecological innovation that will one day save us from ourselves.

If you are looking for a low impact way to tour the Gettysburg battlefield, want leave a few pounds of SUV carbon in the parking lot and aren't into a bicycle or a horse, rent a Segway. I spotted a family from Harrisburg heading to Devils Den today while bicycling with a friend.

The electric Segway can go 25 miles on a charge and mimics the body's natural form of walking for starting, stopping and turning. It takes a little getting used to at first, but it's a one-of-a-kind whole body interactive experience, yet very simple once you get the hang of it.
Segway Safaris

Highest mileage second generation Prius heads back to Japan for dissection.

Andrew Grant a Vancouver, British Columbia cab driver and his partner drove a 2004 Toyota Prius 248,548 miles in 24 months.

According to Grant, the Prius just surpassed the 400,000 kilometer (248,548 mile) mark. The Prius accomplished this feat by consuming just 10 to 15 liters of gasoline per 12-hour shift as opposed to 35 to 55 liters for traditional ICE (internal combustion engine) taxis.

Over a 24-month period, the Prius had one-third less maintenance costs and there were no failures of the hybrid powertrain during 400,000 kilometers of driving. The lower maintenance costs coupled with a fuel savings of roughly 1,500 liters per month means that the Prius paid for itself in less than 24 months.

Grant's 2004 Prius is now the highest-mileage second generation Prius on the road. Not surprisingly, Toyota is interested in checking out the vehicle so it will soon be shipped to Toyota's Japanese headquarters for research. dailytech.com

The cab partners had enough money saved in fuel after their cab experiment to pay for a whole other car and oil companies were left with thousands less profit. The average driver can profit by downsizing and choosing a more efficient vehicle.

The Oregon-based Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle has a driving range of about 50 miles and a 0-30 mph time of 3.8 seconds. It can reach an 80-percent charge in two hours from a standard outlet, and be fully recharged in three.

Six 12-volt lithium-phosphate battery packs built by Valence Technologies, Inc. in Austin, Texas. supply power using an electronic control module. According to the manufacturer,

Lithium-phosphate batteries don't have the burn characteristics of lithium ionPhosphates are extremely stable in overcharge or short circuit conditions and have the ability to withstand high temperatures without decomposing. When abuse does occur, phosphates are not prone to thermal runaway and will not burn. As a result, Saphion® technology possesses safety characteristics that are fundamentally superior to those of Lithium-ion batteries.

MSNBC did a review

John True decided to stop driving his Mercedes-Benz E320 and bought a Honda Civic Hybrid, advertised mileage - 49 miles per gallon in the city, 51 mpg on the highway. After 6,000 miles of driving, True said he averaged just 32 mpg in mixed city/highway driving. Last March, True filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Riverside, Calif, in what appears to be the first legal challenge of the mileage claims of hybrid vehicles.

The lawsuit claims American Honda Motor has misled consumers in its advertisements and on its Web site. The suit notes that while the Environmental Protection Agency and automobile window stickers say "mileage will vary," some of Honda's advertisements read "mileage may vary." That implies that it's possible to get the mileage advertised, said William H. Anderson, a Washington, D.C., attorney for True.

Actually, I have gotten better than the sticker on my 05' Civic Hybrid, 53 round trip to North Carolina, and below the sticker around 39 for a 15 degree day in January. So the EPA sticker is possible. I suppose that I could match True's 32 mpg if I attempted to drive the car as aggressively as possible under the worse circumstances. There is a wide variability in fuel mileage from hybrids, because there is alot going on with the car to squeeze mileage.

Cylinders that shut-off under light loads, battery charge level that depends on braking technique that maintains the battery charge so the engine isn't charging. Outside temperature also effects battery efficiency, using A/C, cargo load and most of all how aggressively the vehicle is driven are some of the things that contribute to the variability in mileage. Because of all the small steps that increase mileage with a hybrid, it's easy to tear down that mileage..

It makes no sense to advertise any car below the EPA standard, because the competition is held to and will market at the same EPA standard. The EPA has overhauled their 30 year old system of determining mileage with 2008 models

We live in a society that wants a magic bullet, a pill to pop, a knob to turn, a religion to cure our ills and we expect results from our dollars spent blind to our own interaction with our surreoundings. It's the same thinking that got us in trouble with our environment in the first place.

In this case, someone who hasn't researched the product they drive and a lawyer may profit, while a company pioneering gas saving technology and the rest of us who are charged more for future cars to pay for pointless lawsuits.

Al Gore III, 24, the son of the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee, was driving a blue Toyota Prius about 100 mph on the San Diego Freeway yesterday when he was pulled over about 2:15 a.m. (cnn.com).

The top speed of a stock Prius is about 105 mph. During Bonneville National Speed Week, a specially prepared Prius attained a speed of 130.794 mph. The gearing was changed, the inverter voltage was increased to 550 volts, the rev limiter pushed up, the interior stripped out, and an ice filler transmission cooler was built in the place of the passenger seat. (hybridcars.about.com)

You have to commend the younger Gore, while he did break speed laws and was charged with drug violations, he did so with a low carbon footprint.

While slowly taking over the information highway, Google is using it's resources to accelerate the learning curve for viable plug-in hybrids.

Google won't build and sell hybrid cars but will focus "on accelerating their development through research, testing and investment," says Dan Reicher of Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm.

The company has pledged $11 million. The U.S. government plans to spend $28 million on plug-in component research in fiscal 2008, he says.
usatoday.com