September 2007 Archives

As of today, tax credits will no longer be available on the Toyota Prius, Highlander Hybrid and Camry Hybrid, or on the Lexus GS 450h and RX 400h.

They sold too many, were too successful and must be punished so others can prosper. It's an odd twist on the free market by the federal tax code. A trapdoor was built into the tax code to cut incentives for buying from successful manufacturers in the event someone would run away with the market.

Credits will continue on manufacturers who missed the market sweet spot for hybrids until Jan. 1, 2009 when all credits end. At that point your only incentive will be making air less polluted and decreasing your dependence on foreign oil.

nytimes.com
money.cnn.com

Volkswagen could be about to revive its, one-liter concept car for production, unveiled to the world in 2003.

The carbon-fiber tandem two-seater had a noisy 300cc, 8.5bhp single-cylinder diesel engine capable of delivering 282 mpg and cutting the average motorist's fuel bills and carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90 per cent.telegraph.co.uk

A British study from Cardiff University and Clifford Thames, an automotive consultancy, states:

“Conventional technology will overtake the Prius over the next 12 to 18 months, and consumers won’t have to pay a premium for it,” said David Riemenschneider, Clifford Thames’ chief executive.

The small Toyota is still the cleanest for its size, but is outranked by nine smaller Peugeot, Citroën, Ford, Smart, and other cars in a new environmental rating system. The researchers also studied cars due to launch shortly, and claim that gasoline and diesel cars with new emissions-cutting technology will soon out pace the Prius on a size-for-size basis.

Rather than focusing on tailpipe emissions only, the ranking also takes into account cars’ overall environmental “footprint” – including raw materials, production, and end-of-life costs – based on their length, width and weight. ft.com

Since most of the cars in the study aren't marketed here in the states, the study offers us more of an observation that technology is blossoming that can build clean running cars at a conservative price point. It's up to the consumer to push industry doing business here with demand.

The average gas mileage of hybrid models available in the U.S. is 33 miles per gallon (combined city and highway). But Chevy's newest Silverado hybrid truck gets only 16 mpg. The newest Lexus LS 600h L hybrid sedan clocks in at 21 mpg, the 2007 Saturn Vue hybrid at 26 mpg.

The Chevy's brother the GMC Sierra Classic 15 Hybrid with its V8 engine and hefty 5,000-lb. weight keeps its gas mileage to 16 mpg — only one mile per gallon more than GMC's non-hybrid version.

This contradiction is not lost on consumers. The most recent 2006 J.D. Power and Associates Alternative Powertrain Study found that only 50% of new-vehicle shoppers are currently considering a hybrid — down from 57% the year before.abcnews.com

It's important to note that when the new EPA mileage stickers kick in soon a more realistic view of fuel economy settles in with consumers. We just use too much fuel to move us.

Margie wrote greenmesh responding to
Yellow Pine Energy Storage:

Does using brick, stone or other natural siding effect the insulation value?

Masonry products increase the insulation value of a home over wood frame construction by nature of their thermal mass that can moderate temperature swings.

When we think of insulation, fiberglass and foam with an "R-value" come to mind. The amount of dead air trapped in these closed spaces from spun wool, blown foam, or double glass panes keeps heat from transferring. Just as air moving fast in your heating system transfers heat.

The dead air space in your walls provided by insulation is only part of the equation that cuts heating/cooling costs.

The most efficient building material in the desert Southwest is a couple feet of Adobe which has a very low R-value. However, in places where temperature can vary 50 degrees day/night, the Adobe provides a great deal of thermal lag and dampening of the extremes. The dense surface heats up slowly by day and takes time to cool down at night.

The masons that built my 100+ year old brick row house in Emigsville, built an airspace between two courses of brick as a method of dead air space insulation. The brick walls are structural and thick. The modern layer of insulation, I put on the inside between the studding, doesn't have to work as hard during days of temperature extremes as the same insulation does in the wood frame house next door.

High mass walls work best to enhance insulation factors in temperature climates that are moderate with extreme temperature swings within 24 hours in places like New Mexico and Colorado.

The amount of insulation in a home doesn't paint an accurate picture of total home efficiency. You have to take in the whole picture of construction and how it relates to exposure in the context of a particular climate to maximize efficiency.

...but don't get comfortable. The price of a barrel of oil is at a record high of $82 a barrel, while the price at the pump isn't climbing as quickly. Is this good news or will the rubber band snap us this winter?

Crude oil is up because of all the usual reasons, speculation of surging international demand and a finite supply. Speculation of storms. Speculation of speculation... speculation is good because the big machine, consumers and producers, would just go along existing and consuming until the well ran dry.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced today that they will be expanding a refinery in Port Author, Texas from 325,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day to 600,000 barrels, making the refinery one of the largest in the world as well as the biggest in the U.S. cnn/money

Pump prices normally decline in September because of a decrease in demand after the close of the Summer driving season. As refineries come back on line this summer after an unusual number of facilities experiencing problems earlier this year the fear of (speculation) not meeting demand has diminished.

The National Weather Service said temperatures in much of the Northeast U.S., the world's largest heating oil market will be above normal from October to January. Also Ethanol production margins have dropped to 15 cents per gallon from 75 cents in mid-May due to oversupply cnn/money adding that to the fuel mix.

While the price of crude oil has climbed by $10 a barrel in the last month, gasoline prices barely budged nationwide, suggesting refiners and retailers have largely absorbed the increase. But eventually, higher oil prices may translate into higher prices at the gas pump.

Now that demand is lighter and imports remain at healthy levels, refiners haven't yet been able to pass on the steep rise in oil prices to drivers. At the pump, the national average for regular gasoline went up a couple of cents to $2.79 in the past month, according to AAA. During the same period, oil was up about 17%.

As a result, refining margins, or the difference between the price refiners pay for crude and the selling price of products they make with it, have collapsed in recent months. wsj.com

Texas oil investor T. Boone Pickens says he expects oil prices to continue their meteoric rise. He predicts the price of oil will hit $100 a barrel, although probably not this year. npr.org

For the consumer, we are standing in an oil fire storm nightmare where all the winds are blowing away from us for the moment. The wind can change at any moment.

The bite of truth: A product for those who want to consume less energy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Bush administration official apologized today for a newsletter sent to thousands of government employees that encouraged them to consider fuel-efficient vehicles built by Japanese automakers.

"I deeply regret that our newsletter offended anyone, especially those Americans working in the automobile industry and the millions of people who make American automobile manufacturers successful," said Joe Ellis, the Health and Human Services Department's assistant secretary for administration and management.

Some domestic automakers and Michigan's 15 House members have complained about an Aug. 17 e-mail sent by the agency to its 67,000 employees asking them to consider a list of a dozen green cars — none built by Detroit-based companies.

U.S. hybrid vehicle registrations grew more than 49 percent in the first seven months of 2007 compared to 2006, according to R.L. Polk & Co. California is the top hybrid state.

Oklahoma - 143.4 percent
Arizona - 86.3 percent
Minnesota - 97.7 percent

Texas Transportation Institutes's 2007 Urban Mobility Report was published today. The report is used by transportation and transit organizations to understand trends and how they will affect us.

Traffic congestion continues to worsen in American cities of all sizes, creating a $78 billion annual drain on the U.S. economy in the form of 4.2 billion lost hours and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel—that's 105 million weeks of vacation and 58 fully-loaded supertankers. The 2007 mobility report notes that congestion causes the average peak period traveler to spend an extra 38 hours of travel time and consume an additional 26 gallons of fuel, amounting to a cost of $710 per traveler. mobility.tamu.edu

The bottom line is waste: Fuel, time, resources.

It's infrastructure "planning" driven by financial opportunities, not planning that will move people in an ever increasing population.

A car company and related services may market vehicles and create a car culture, which drives profit for those company's, but doesn't serve the long-term quality of life for the masses.

An artificially inflated real estate market, using sub-prime loans may drive profits for lenders, developers and everyone else in the real estate food chain, but home prices out of reach of people with modest incomes drives them to drive further from urban and suburban centers reducing their quality of life with extended commute times, gobbling energy, and adding to pollutants.

It's a balance of free market opportunity and a functioning public transit system. Don't look for the minds that market personal transportation to help us find a solution to congestion anytime soon.

Video I produced: York's Light Rail - Before 70 years ago, electric public transportation moved American urban cores.

The base 2008 Prius is now $1,225 less expensive than last year’s model, starting at $20,950 without destination and handling charges. A few standards like including cruise control, a tonneau cover, wheel trim ring, heated mirrors, and seatback pockets, which were standard on last year’s model are options available in a $575 package. cars.com

The base model of the slightly updated 2008 model has been in it's current form since 2004. Toyota hopes to squeeze in a few more economy buyers before the model change.

The Arctic's sea covering has shrunk so much that the Northwest Passage, the fabled sea route that connects Europe and Asia, has opened up for the first time since records began.

This summer there was a reduction of a million square kilometres in the Arctic's ice covering compared with 2006, scientists have found.

In addition, scientists have found that the Northeast Passage, a corresponding route that runs parallel to the north coast of Russia, may also soon become navigable - though the clearing of both passages is likely to fuel animosity between countries trying to exploit the region's oil, fish and mineral resources, experts have warned. www.guardian.co.uk

U.S. District Judge William Sessions ruled against the auto industry today in Burlington, Vermont, saying regulations enacted by California and adopted by Vermont and other states aren't pre- empted by federal rules as carmakers argued. He also said the industry, which claims it would cost billions of dollars to comply with the rules, hadn't shown they were too burdensome. bloomberg.com

The door has cracked open giving the ability for states to control their own air quality. Partly, in response to the federal government not really responding to the issue in the past, states like California and Vermont are trying to control their own destiny.

It will be a nightmare for the automotive industry if each state adopts it's own standards. In the past, the automotive industry has made a "cleaner" and "dirtier" version of vehicles. Sometimes, a product is not offered, as with some diesel cars in California and New York at various time periods, when volumes didn't make it feasible for R&D to meet those standards and maintaining a niche parts and repair network.

I have a 2002 Honda 919 motorcycle. The repair manual has specs for a California version and a 49 state version. An evaporative canister is added to the California version to trap hydrocarbons. It pays to have two versions. Since 1 out of every 10 people in the U.S. live in California, Honda can sell alot of Honda 919s. The lower price point in 49 states makes it price competitive with other manufactures with the same standard.

If there are 50 different standards of emissions manufacturers will probably be to meet the strictest version or just not offer the product in the states where the manufacturer deems it not profitable to meet that that standard vs. units it can sell.

The failure at this point falls on the federal level. Had current federal standards, or even an administration that recognized global warming before a few months ago, attempted to address the issue before it began to fall into a state run anarchy, the same manufactures would have been already been slowly forced to meet an acceptable standard and gotten over it. It's profitable in volume where the price point is universal and the product is a necessity.

An entire nation on the same system of standards, that has been determined by a global vision, a concern for the environment and it's people, is a far better for everyone involved than a state by state patchwork of green Band-Aids.

Wanted: Politicians/CEOs with a conscience who don't love money.

We nned a hero.

A reader writes:

will softened water hurt yellow pines? We have a lawn sprinkling system that the association has hooked up so the water has all the iron removed I think it will kill the trees as i saw it happen on a golf course.-del holmin

In comment to: Yellow pine energy storage

My guess is that there is a high iron content in the water that is showing up as rust on sidewalks and buildings.

I'm not sure of where you are writing from but a solution is to use native plants that don't need artificial watering and or just let lawns go dormant in dry seasons.

It depends on what they are using to remove the iron, in a traditional home water softening, as you are referring to it, the system adds salts to the water which build up in the soil and isn't good for plants.

There are other ways to remove iron from water that people use for irrigation that then backwash the iron saturated water in concentrated form somewhere other than the irrigation system. These systems aren't so great for where it's being discharged.

If you know what type of system they are using I would be happy to do a little research.

The best type of irrigation comes from clouds using plants that thrive in that particular habitat. That is why cactus thrives in Tucson, and trees do well in Boston.

------------------------

A guy in Texas who made his his own contraption to remove iron from his lawn water.
www.pwgazette.com

Verdant Power’s Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) Project is being operated in New York City’s East River, along the eastern shore of Roosevelt Island. The RITE Project incorporates a Kinetic Hydropower System comprised of 5 meter, 35 kW Free-flow turbines, which generate electricity from the ebb and flow tides of the East River. In three phases, the project is planned to progress from a demonstration array of six turbines to 100-300 turbines. At full capacity the project could provide up to 10 MW of power locally, enough to provide energy to nearly 8,000 New York homes. verdantpower.com

Two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will disappear by 2050. The finding is part of a yearlong review by the United States Geological Survey of the effects of climate and ice changes on polar bears to help determine whether they should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The study goes on to say that the bears would disappear entirely from Alaska, pushing further north into the arctic where ice is around all year. “As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear,” said Steven Amstrup, lead biologist for the survey team. “Despite any mitigation of greenhouse gases, we’re going to see the same amount of energy in the system for 20, 30 or 40 years,” said Mark Myers, the survey director. AP/nytimes.com

The bottom line is that the damage has been done and where the erosion of ecological diversity ends can only be slowed or not further accelerated rather than stopped even if we could shut off the cause tomorrow.

Zipcar, a car-sharing company that offers self-service on-demand cars by the hour or day, is offering cars on several college campuses.

The idea is that people who have most of their needs in a centrally located area (like an urban center) don't need cars most of the time. In the case of college towns, they are often rural towns where students need a car to get to college, carry stuff maybe get to a store once a week, but they don't need one to commute or for daily activities. Good public transportation isn't always available in small college towns.

"Stored" cars on and around a college campus is often a parking nightmare for local communities. York City issues permits for the streets in neighborhoods around York College to help keep peace with residents. The colleges involved are asking for lower impact car like a Prius, which might also take a few oil burning/dripping, duct tape and bailing wire college cars out of the equation.

Bates College is the first Maine location for Zipcar. Starting this week, it’s offering a pair of Toyota Prius automobiles for $7 an hour.

Assistant Dean of Students Keith Tannenbaum predicts the cars will ease parking problems and cut down on pollution, in addition to helping students get around.

Students, faculty or community members can become a member for $35, reserve a car online and use their magnetized membership card to unlock the vehicle. Gas, insurance and a prime parking spot on the campus are included. news.bostonherald.com

Another program:Middlebury College

Zipcar will provide cars on campus to more than 50 Universities prnewswire.com

I have just one question about the program's profit model:

New rental cars...college students?

According to the manufacturer, it is a battery pack that can be charged by a wall outlet or the sun and can power most any portable device. Holds a charge for a year and fully charged Solio can store enough power to charge a typical cell phone or an iPod Nano at least two times.

Some high-tech tricks and some common sense tweaks turn a Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion (diesel) into a torquey 52 mpg / 118 mph sipper without any hybrid stuff. The Golf is at the Frankfurt Auto Show now and on sale in Germany this fall.

• Enclosed radiator grille aids aerodynamics and two fans keep it cool
• C02, the greenhouse gas, has been reduced
• A software intervention in engine management reduces the idling speed combined with a particulate filter simultaneously improving emission behavior
• Longer gear ratios in third, fourth and fifth gears
• Light-running low rolling resistance tires running at a higher pressure
• Top speed increases to 118 mph businessweek.com

Now, what would happen if we put a super clean diesel into hybrid platform? Well. actually, the characteristic of diesel engines is to drop their fuel mixture at idle, when gas hybrids shut-off, and be more efficient at the highway speeds than a gas engine mated to a hybrid power system. Maybe less mileage could be attained when adding the extra weight of batteries and mechanicals, than you would think.

Although diesels prevail in Canada and Europe, U.S. consumers are still suffering from a combination of post-traumatic 1979 Oldsmobile diesel syndrome combined with US auto marketers never giving it another chance. The fuel here is also heavily laden with road taxes associated with trucks usually making it more expensive here than gasoline so mileage gains would have to be impressive.

Toyota and VW to show new city cars at Frankfurt.

The VW show car is based on a new rear wheel drive platform housing two- or three-cylinder engines mounted below the rear seats, which is intended to support versions from VW, Skoda and SEAT for the European, Japanese and possibly U.S. markets, and in basic form, in India and China.

Toyota will present at Frankfurt a production-ready version of the front-wheel drive Endo concept car shown at the 2005 Frankfurt IAA, which reportedly has half the components of a conventional small car. www.autoindustry.co.uk (9/4)

Take a deep breath.

In early April, a dense cloud of pollutants over Northern China sailed to nearby Seoul, sweeping along dust and desert sand before wafting across the Pacific. An American satellite spotted the cloud as it crossed the West Coast...Researchers in California, Oregon and Washington noticed specks of sulfur compounds, carbon and other byproducts of coal combustion coating the silvery surfaces of their mountaintop detectors. nytimes.com

We play with treaties, boost profit and demand low cost goods but in the end we will choke on our own lungs.

Dedicated recharging ports are one of the ways some cities are dealing with pollution. London offers a plan where a driver on a plug-in hybrid/electric car can put a $90 refundable deposit on a dedicated cord assembly to plug a car in during working hours. These drivers are exempt from congestion charges, don't pay for the electric and have parking privileges to help encourage more drivers away from petrol. The charging port increases the range of an electric vehicle.

Toyota and Electricite de France SA are due to announce a deal next week to develop electricity infrastructure for the plug-in cars Toyota plans to launch in a few years. EU nations are under the gun to develop zero emission urban cores as they seek to address pollution. marketwatch.com

Visit a UK fleet of 50mph electric delivery trucks recharged by the wind: tfl.gov.uk

The concept of V2G is a concept of supplementing power to the electrical grid from your vehicle (whole parking lots) to reduce demand on the power grid. "One typical electric-drive vehicle can put out over 10kW, the average draw of 10 houses. The key to realizing economic value from V2G is precise timing of its grid power production to fit within driving requirments while meeting the time-critical power "dispatch" of the electric distribution system." udel.edu/V2G/

The cap on consumer costs for electricity are about to fly off in Pennsylvania. As the final remnants of the days of regulation looms, the experiments of a few inventive nerds with a cord from their Toyota Prius (priups.com) to power their homes starts to make sense.