The Official Phoneraiser Blog
If you haven’t already heard about it, here is T. Boone Pickens’ plan for U.S. oil independence. Keep in mind that T. Boone (besides having the best name ever) is an old school oilman. His angle is that this is a practical plan for making America a stronger country. Pretty cool that the end result of this plan would be a major win for the environment.
The “Pickens Plan”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avt8Yo2WE14&hl=en]
What better way to follow up a Volkswagen post than with another Volkswagen post? It’s “news” because it happened back in March. At the Geneva Motor Show, Volkswagen unveiled a “Dual-Fuel” Passat that can either be run on natural gas or conventional gasoline. It is still a prototype, but it provides flexibility with regards to fuel supply. And if run only on natural gas, it reduces emissions compared to regular gasoline.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/03/vw-introduces-d.html
From the Wired Auto Blog: The people’s car is taking the lead in high gas mileage vehicles. The “One-Liter” is a 660 lbs. 2 seater Volkswagen that gets 235 miles per gallon. It achieves this extremely low weight and high gas mileage with a carbon fiber body mated to a highly efficient one liter engine. VW had planned to hold off until 2012 to produce the vehicle citing the high cost of the carbon fiber. Since the carbon fiber technology has developed so quickly thanks to it’s use in many industries, including aerospace, the price of the material has come down to reasonable levels. Volkswagen only plans on producing small numbers of this niche vehicle, but it is a great study in what uber-high gas mileage requires.
Found on the D Magazine Frontburner blog: The state of Texas has recently begun an ambitious experiment with a Dallas area landfill. They will be using the landfill to generate natural gasses. The project is expected to produce enough gas to meet the needs of an estimated 16,000 households. It is currently in the process of being converted.
http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2008/07/14/trash-talking-about-the-mccommas-landfill/
Another TED video. Chris Jordan puts our excess into pictures. That’s a lot of plastic cups!
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