Posted by Dave (in Anchorage, Alaska)

George, Jun, Heroes star Hayden Panettiere, and Seni
© Greenpeace/Walsh

Well, we’re at the end of a great day here in Anchorage, on the eve of the International Whaling Commission. Today, Sunday 27th May 2007, people took to the streets in more than 50 locations around the world for the Big Blue March voicing their support for the world’s whales, and calling for an end to commercial whaling. Being so far west, we were possibly the last location to have a Big Blue March.

The fun began at Delaney strip, a grassy area on the edge of the city centre, after massive preparations by Mel, Asbhy, Sarah, and a host of others. The weather looked non-committal – drops of rain, the odd ray of sunshine. Cold one moment, warm the next. That didn’t deter the hardy Alaskans, because rom 1:15pm onwards, people started streaming in from all directions. A box of blue t-shirts awaited the first 300 – and more than 20 whale outfits (first come, first server!) Earlier, three Anchorage Police Department officers happened along – and one of them insisted on trying on a blue whale suit!

Continue reading Anchorage: The Big Blue March…

Posted by Dave (in Anchorage, Alaska)

Here’s photos from cities around the world where Whale Defenders have shown their support for the whales, before this years International Whaling Commission meeting kicks off here in Anchorage, Alaska.

Got photos from your Big Blue March? Post ’em here!

Posted by Steve (in Anchorage, Alaska)

The Whales Broadcasting Corporation at “opening time” this morning.

So, today is the beginning of an interesting week here in Anchorage – where the International Whaling Commission Meeting will take place. Delegates and Greenpeace folks from all over the world are all arriving in Anchorage, gearing up for the start of the Commission meetings tomorrow morning.

We’ve just wrapped up the launch of our efforts here – housed in the “Whale Broadcasting Corporation” tent at the corner of 4th and K Streets in downtown Anchorage – with a press conference. Journalists and film crews from all over the world crowded the tent to hear all about what Greenpeace is doing here. In addition to all of our activities here in the tent (http://www.whaledefenders.org), we’re also observing the meeting, hoping to bring the IWC into the 21st century: to protect the whales, and not the commercial whalers.

Continue reading Report from the Whale Broadcasting Corporation tent…

Filed under: Etc., Solar, Carbon Capture

There are many pilot projects going on right now with carbon capture and sequestration at power plants and other facilities that are burning fossil fuels. Capturing the carbon dioxide is probably the more straightforward part of that equation. The process of storing the carbon dioxide is can be more problematic.

Chemists at University of California at San Diego have come up with an alternative use for the captured CO2. Rather than storing it underground they want to split off one of the oxygen atoms to produces carbon monoxide and oxygen. The CO is an important feedstock for many chemical processes such as producing detergents and plastics and is usually produced from natural gas. Prof. Clifford Kubiak and grad student Aaron Sathrum have demonstrated a semiconductor catalyst device that uses solar power to split the CO2.

This has multiple advantages because it eliminates the CO2 from the atmosphere and provides the CO that is needed for other processes without consuming additional fossil fuels. More development is needed on the device to improve the efficiency, but the concept takes a novel approach to dealing with the problem of what to do with the carbon dioxide we produce.

[Source: UCSD News]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Etc., Legislation and Policy

As Joel Achenbah’s lede in this article so aptly points out, these are rough times for the American car industry. His proof? Daimler just sold Chrysler for a fraction of the original purchase price, President Bush wants to regulate tailpipe emissions, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced new low-carbon fuel standard and gas prices don’t stop rising.

All the while, Detroit continues producing trucks, SUVs and large sedans. In spite of the cool aspect of owning a hybrid or an electric car, Americans love keeping their fast, sexy, high-performance cars that are synonymous with suburban sprawl. There are, of course, initiatives set to downsize vehicles and make them more efficient but whether they’ll be effective isn’t all that clear, Achenbah says.

Big cars mean higher profits. American car companies are not likely to potentiate tiny, fuel-efficient cars. It looks like all investment has gone into performance and not fuel efficienly. “The transportation sector has been the least creative sector in our society,” says Dan Sperling, a professor at the University of California at Davis who helped write California’s new fuel standards.

[Source: Joel Achenbah from the Washington Post]

Everybody now is trying to figure how to combine the need for greener cars while keeping profits and “consumer choice”. In one hand, we can think about biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells and new materials. In the other hand, it seems that maket alone won’t keep us away from oil addiction (and reduce tailpipe emissions). Maybe politicians should intervene with regulation but that’s a difficult balance between what’s desirable and atainable. The real story, therefore, is how to deal with the tension between private desires and the public interest.

The thing is that “we’re not going to see huge changes in 10 or 15 years,” says Marc Ross, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Michigan. “You can’t really change the fuel in that kind of time span. It takes time. It takes huge investments. We have almost 200,000 gas stations. The only fuel you could change in a time like 10 or 15 years is to add ethanol, to adopt a mixture that can be served from the same gas pumps. But if you want to do something different, like hydrogen – hydrogen is very difficult to handle – that’s going to take a great deal of time.”

It has calculated that every time gas prices jump 10 percent, the demand drops, at most, only 1 percent. The policy implication: Gas taxes won’t help curb demand as much as you may think, and Europe is an example: european cars are also bigger and SUVs sell there quite well (albeit with diesel engines).

This debate about the Car of the Future means also a debate on the health of our planet. “By 2050, the number of vehicles in the world is expected to go up by a factor of three,” says John Heywood, director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at MIT. “That should scare you. It scares me.”

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Diesel, Etc., Flex-Fuel, Hybrid

The important thing to remember here is that the poll taken of 1,804 people was done three weeks before the national average price of gas spiked to a record $3.22/gallon, so some opinions may have changed. Of course, they could only have changed in favor of demanding more fuel-efficient vehicles, so it’s no bad thing.

Interestingly though, of the 70 percent of those polled that said the would seek a more fuel efficient vehicle when buying their next one, “nearly half would consider a diesel, hybrid or flex-fuel vehicle.” An equally surprising statistic said that one in nine of those polled already primarily drive one of those vehicles now.

One of the core reservations people had about purchasing hybrids was lack of selection. They felt there were too many trade-offs to be made to save money at the pump. Apparently, power and performance are more important to the American buyer than would have been expected. Ergo, we need a wider selection of hybrids – so Consumer Reports hath spoken. How about a real hybrid sport sedan, like a G35 or an IS 400, still getting 30+ mpg? Better yet, a Tesla-powered 3-series? What say you?

More statistical goodness in the press release after the jump.

[Source: Consumer Reports]
Consumer Reports Poll: Car Buyers Seek Fuel Efficiency, But Remain Wary of Trade-offs

Survey Finds Americans Want More Hybrid Choices

NEW YORK, May 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Facing soaring gasoline prices, American car buyers definitely want more fuel-efficient vehicles but may not be ready to give up size, range, performance or other amenities to achieve that goal, a new Consumer Reports poll has found.

The Auto Pulse survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, polled a nationally representative sample of 1,804 people on issues concerning gas prices and tradeoffs they might be considering.

The survey, taken in late April, came just three weeks before the national average gas price spiked to a record $3.22 per gallon of regular unleaded gas on May 21. That is 32.6 cents more than at the same time last year, and nearly as high, after adjusting for inflation, as the all-time record set in March, 1981.

Even before the surge, gas prices were already on the mind of the roughly one in five respondents who planned to purchase a new car during the coming year.

Among that group, nearly seven in 10 said they would seek a vehicle with better fuel efficiency than their current model. Nearly half would consider a diesel, hybrid or flex-fuel vehicle (the latter can run on gasoline, E85, or any gasoline-ethanol blend), whereas only one in nine primarily drive such cars now.

Car buyers were wary, though, when asked what they would be willing to sacrifice in order to achieve higher miles per gallon. A bare majority (52 percent) said they would give up vehicle size or capacity. Somewhat fewer would trade off range (49 percent), performance (48 percent), or amenities (44 percent).

Forty-two percent said they would be willing to pay more for a fuel- efficient car, and 31 percent would pay more for special fuel.

The answers reflect the challenge consumers face in a market filled with large, gas-guzzling vehicles where buyers seeking to improve fuel efficiency often must pay extra — typically about $3,000 to $4,000 more for a hybrid model as compared to a similar conventional vehicle. Selection is also limited. In fact, survey respondents in the market for a car but who aren’t considering a hybrid said selection and price were the main reasons.

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, supports raising automobile fuel efficiency standards in a manner that makes the auto industry minimize tradeoffs between higher miles-per-gallon and other consumer preferences. “With a meaningful increase in fuel efficiency, consumers can reduce their gasoline expenditures substantially,” said Gene Kimmelman, CU’s vice president for federal and international affairs. For a recent CU statement on this issue, visit http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_other_issues/004482.html.

Buyers themselves can maximize fuel economy by considering the most fuel- efficient vehicle in a preferred class. Savings can be significant; midsized sport-utility vehicles, for example, can differ by more than 50 percent in fuel efficiency. To learn how to save at the pump, drivers can go to Consumer Reports’ free Fuel Economy Guide at http://www.consumerreports.org/fuel.

Indeed, the survey revealed a desire to be environmentally responsible. Among all car-owning respondents, some 60 percent said they were either concerned or very concerned about the environment, vs. only 6 percent who said they were not concerned. Nearly three-quarters said they would drive more slowly, or even drive less, to conserve gas because of high gasoline prices.

But consumers also said gas prices would have to go even higher before they would make major changes in behavior. On average, car owners said prices would have to rise to $3.90 per gallon before they would “drastically” reduce their driving. (We believe gasoline demand to be relatively inelastic, meaning that because of work and other commitments, people have to keep buying gas even if the price soars, though they may look for other savings to offset that burden.)

The survey found that drivers in the West and those with incomes of $75,000 or more would resist gas prices longer; for them, it would take a price of $4.50 per gallon to spur dramatic change. Older people and those with incomes under $40,000 were more vulnerable; the majority said they would make drastic cutbacks in driving at an average price of only $3.50.

The Consumer Reports poll was conducted via telephone April 26-30, 2007. Participants had to live in a household that owned at least one vehicle.

(C) Consumers Union 2007. The material above is intended for legitimate news entities only; it may not be used for commercial or promotional purposes. Consumer Reports(R) is published by Consumers Union, an expert, independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. To achieve this mission, we test, inform, and protect. To maintain our independence and impartiality, Consumers Union accepts no outside advertising, no free test samples, and has no agenda other than the interests of consumers. Consumers Union supports itself through the sale of our information products and services, individual contributions, and a few noncommercial grants.

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Posted by Chrissy (in Amsterdam)

We weren’t a huge amount of people, I guess about 25, but we had lots of inflatable whale-come dolphin characters, blue balloons provided by Sanne, Pete and his whale bus complete with loudspeakers emitting whalesong and three folk on the African drums. Lots of initiative on flyers which were generally well received.

The local TV was there and we were the most photographed “item” on the boulevard this afternoon. The weather Gods were kind and it didn’t rain, in fact it was very pleasant. There were lots of people around and we were able to discuss the whaling issues with many of them as we handed out the flyers. I did take the dogs and as they’re white, fluffy and small we nicknamed them baby seals for today. We were all wearing as much blue as we could and I had a “stop killing whales” T-shirt over my rucksack, so the message was clearly on view to non-Dutch speakers.

Sanne had organized everything well and in typical Dutch fashion we had a police escort… on a very nifty mountain bike!

– Chrissy

Filed under: Etc., EV/Plug-in, Ford, Toyota

I like to keep an eye on eBay motors and see what some of the full-fledged electric cars sell for there (there’s not enough time in the day to keep up with, say, the biodiesel items). It’d be nice to see ebay motors implement an electric vehicle category to scan these types of vehicles for sale easier, but until then, my process is an unscientific way to see how interested people are in EVs. The two most popular vehicles that pop up are Ford Ranger EVs and RAV4 EVs, mostly because they’re pretty much the only full-fledged EVs that were ever actually sold in the U.S. Right now, here’s what’s available:

We don’t often see yellow Ford Ranger EVs for sale (utility white is far more common), and this one appears to be in good condition. It’s a 1999 with 27,000 miles and an HOV access sticker. The Buy It Now price is $25,500, which seems a little high in comparison with past electric Ranger sales. There have been three offers at lower prices, but the fact that the truck is still available means they didn’t cut it.

This 2002 RAV4 EV is already going for over $40,000 and there are eight days left in the auction, so it will undoubtedly reach the same dollar amount as other recent RAV4 EVs: over $50,000. This one is particularly attractive because it’s HOV-friendly, still has a warranty (good for another 5,000 miles or until May, 2010) and just got a new battery pack, according to the seller’s description. It does have 75,000 miles on it, but I don’t see that holding the price down at all.

Neither of these auctions lists any sort of high-speed charger, like previous auctions have, so it might be a good idea to ask about that – and other questions – before placing a bid. Of course, I and AutoblogGreen have no stake in any of these vehicles selling or not selling. This is just FYI.
[Source: eBay]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Transportation Alternatives

Hyosung is a relatively new player in the motorcycle industry here in the U.S., but has been making two-wheeled vehicles in their home country, Korea, for a good while. They have collaborated with Suzuki for years and still have some sort of technology sharing deals with them, from what I have heard. I like the idea of their GV650 Avitar (their spelling, not mine), as it gives a sense of style and high performance to the smaller sport cruiser market segment which the larger manufacturers are ignoring in favor of ever larger engines and bikes. Many people believe that the GV650 looks similar to the Harley Davidson V-Rod, and I can see why they might say that. However, park the two bikes next to one another and the differences are clearly visible, with the ‘Rod looking much more nicely finished. It better be for twice the price, though. Moving on further down their line-up are two new scooters, a 125cc version and a larger 250cc version. They carry the rather unfetching name MS3.

Recently new sales agreements have been made that allow United Motors to sell bikes made by Hyosung. Whether the new Hyosung scooter line has anything to do with United Motors existing line, I am unaware. I have seen scooters which look quite similar to the MS3 from a few other companies as well. These new scooters are to be added to the U.S. line and will mark the first Hyosung scooters available in the U.K.

If you follow our site often, you’ll already know that I consider scooters to be a very good choice as a second vehicle in America. The average fuel consumption is too good to ignore for many of us as gas prices continue to rise. If you just can’t ride a scooter, perhaps one of the larger bikes from Hyosung might be more to your liking.

[Source: Hyosung Motors]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.