Green Commentaries Around the Web

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Hydrogen, Mitsubishi, Tesla Motors, Legislation and Policy, UK

Would-be buyers, both individuals and businesses, of certain low emission vehicles in the UK will be offered a sweet incentive starting in 2011. How does 25 percent off the purchase price, up to £5,000 ($7,618 at today’s rates), sound to you? The fiscal inducement will be available for purchases of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), hydrogen-fueled vehicles and battery-powered electrics (BEVs) that meet emissions, performance and safety criteria. The barriers to the bounty include a CO2 output of no more than 75 grams per kilometer. As well, BEVs must have a range of 70 miles (113 kilometers) while PHEVs need to be capable of at least 10 miles (16 km) before the petrol starts burning. All vehicles must be capable of reaching 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour), come with at least a three-year warranty and meet crash standards.

With £230 million ($350.4 million) in the program that runs until 2014, the line-up of people ready to take advantage of extra cash at purchase time may find themselves facing a small choice of vehicles. When things kick off next January, the menu will consist of Mitsubishi i MiEVs and Tesla Roadsters (if there are even Roadsters still available). As the year progresses, the number of choices is expected to expand with the Nissan Leaf becoming available in March and market entrances may be made by the Reva NXR and the Opel Ampera. The program will be reviewed one year after its implementation and any changes deemed necessary will go into effect by April of 2012. Hit the jump for bonus videos of Britain’s ITV News’ take on electric cars featuring (mostly) Mitsubishi’s Japanese jellybean.

[Source: Guardian / Department for Transport]

Continue reading UK to give up to £5000 for ultra low carbon vehicles

UK to give up to £5000 for ultra low carbon vehicles originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Part 1 in a series where Krates Ng (co-founder of Mokugift environmental rewards) interviews fellow ecopreneurs.  Today, Krates interviews Brendan Gill of PlentyWays.

1) Why did you start PlentyWays?

We’ve always wanted to create an environmentally focused organization and its really our first opportunity to do that.  At school and college we learned about the climate change issue and it became obvious that this issue is going to form a backdrop to our entire lives.  Its already a crucial matter, but it is only going to grow more and more important over the coming decades.  We wanted to be involved with this issue and to do our bit to help.

2) Is there a story about the name ‘PlentyWays’?

These days its very hard to come up with a name.  Finding something short, simple and with an available web address is difficult so when we finally came up with PlentyWays, we were really satisfied.  The idea behind it is that there are plenty of ways to make a difference.  That’s really our guiding philosophy: through the products we make available, the tips we provide, the services we review, we are trying to show people all the ways in which they can do their bit.

3) What was the toughest challenge in getting your company started and how you got over that?

There was a combination of challenges at the beginning.  It took us a long time to come up with our name, we even tried crowd sourcing it and put up a bounty of $200 we were so stumped, but even that proved fruitless.  The second big challenge was picking out the right products to offer our customers.  There are a lot of green products out there now and the number is increasing by the day.  We had to do a lot of research into what we thought were the most popular ones and would be most useful to our users.  Its a lot of work to then build relationships with the companies that make these products as well, which we are still working on.

4) If you had to pick one company in your lineup, which one would you showcase and why?

When people ask me what they can do to go green, the very first thing I ask them is if they have switched from incandescent bulbs to CFLs.  This is the most simple straightforward thing someone can do which is guaranteed to save both energy and money.  Sometimes it can be a challenge to convince people of a more expensive option that is more ecological, but using CFL bulbs is a complete no brainier.  Also people who are waiting for their current incandescent supply to run out before switching to CFLs – a quick calculation will show you that in almost all situations you should switch straight away.

5) How is PlentyWays going to grow in 2010? And how can other ecopreneurs help?

PlentyWays has huge plans!… We are working extremely hard on our blog, which we are going to focus on helping people to go green.  We will keep our ears to the ground on all the latest environmental apps, services and products and review them on our blog making it easy for budding ecopreneurs to take advantage of them.  We also want to provide some apps of our own.  The first we made was a very simple tool to stay on top of the latest green news, which pulls in news from some of the most popular green-focused websites out there e.g. TreeHugger and NY Times Environment.  We also want to work on a system that can monitor the energy and monetary savings people can make with various green goods.  For example, if someone purchases a few CFL bulbs from us, we would like to use the date they purchased to automatically calculate how much energy savings that has resulted in and the effect on their wallet.  It will probably use an average energy cost and an average figure for daily light usage as default, but would allow people to customize the calculation to their situation by entering their cost per KWHr and average light usage.  Stay tuned to our blog for details on all new features.

If you’ve read any of my posts about skin care products before you probably know I have issues with overly sensitive skin. Minor use of one tiny bit of the wrong thing makes me break out in all kinds of badness which could be anything from acne to hives.

Skin MD Natural may be just what the doctor ordered to solve my skin issues and give me radiant, healthy, break out free skin.

Read more of this story »

Filed under: Legislation and Policy, Green Daily, USA

As we said the other day, even with the debate over health care reform sucking the media’s attention, the U.S. Senate is busy with a lot of non-HCR items. There’s the debate over the EPA’s endangerment finding with regards to greenhouse gases, for one. Another bit of transportation-related news is the Senate’s passage of the HIRE Act, which Wired considers the Senate’s “first major piece of legislation in 2010.”

While the bill is most concerned with jobs (HIRE stands for Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act), there are a lot of transportation infrastructure items in the language. Most importantly, the HIRE Act extends the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users and recapitalizes the Highway Trust Fund, which means highway funds will keep flowing. Yes, we’re still a car-loving nation, but the bill does have a bit of love for cleaner transportation. For example, it says:

The HIRE Act would extend funding for the Metropolitan and Statewide Planning; Urbanized Area Formula Program; Clean Fuels Grant Program; Fixed Guideway Modernization; Bus and Bus-Related Equipment and Facilities; Elderly Individuals and Individuals with Disabilities; Other Than Urbanized Area Formula Program; Job Access Reverse Commute; New Freedom; Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in the Parks Program; National Transit Database; Alternatives Analysis; Growing States and High Density States; Over the Road Bus Accessibility Program ; Research Programs, including University Centers at the 2009 authorized levels through December 31, 2010. The HIRE Act would extend Capital Investment Grants and FTA Administration at the FY 2010 appropriated levels through December 31, 2010.

We admit we can’t really understand all of that, but any piece of legislation that talks about clean fuels and bus programs can’t be all bad, can it? Wired explains that the real benefits of this bill could come a little later this year as a result of the sausage-making that was required to pass the HIRE Act. Get the details here.

[Source: U.S. Senate via Wired | Image: woodleywonderworks - C.C. License 2.0]

Senate passes HIRE Act, which could bode well for cleaner transportation bills down the road originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Chrysler

For those of you who can’t wait for a factory-built electric vehicle, and can’t swing the cash for a Tesla Roadster, a seller on eBay is offering up a recently converted 2001 Chrysler Sebring. This is the previous-generation Sebring, before the design went from plain to hideous.

As this is written, there are still five day left to bid on this Sebring and the price tag is at $4,276. While this may seem like quite a deal, potential bidders might want to read the whole description before proceeding. The car was converted by ATC of Texas just a few months ago. The current owner has only put 100 miles on the car and blames tough economic times for selling. We can’t help but suspect a bit of buyer’s remorse as well.

The engine compartment and trunk are stuffed with 24 6-volt flooded lead acid batteries. That is enough to yield about 20-30 miles of realistic range. You can apparently push it 45 miles in some circumstances, but that’s not recommended since it shortens the battery life. No trunk space is left and the back end of the car rides pretty low as a result of all that weight. Since it looks like the suspension has not been upgraded to cope with the mass, this thing will probably ride pretty rough. Also, you’ll probably want to charge it outdoors since the batteries give off hydrogen gas as they are being stuffed with electrons. If all of those warnings haven’t already made you turn away, you can check out the auction here. Thanks to Joe for the tip!

[Source: eBay]

eBay find of the day: 2001 Chrysler Sebring EV conversion originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Part 1 in a series where Krates Ng (co-founder of Mokugift environmental rewards) interviews fellow ecopreneurs.  Today, Krates interviews Brendan Gill of PlentyWays.

1) Why did you start PlentyWays?

We’ve always wanted to create an environmentally focused organization and its really our first opportunity to do that.  At school and college we learned about the climate change issue and it became obvious that this issue is going to form a backdrop to our entire lives.  Its already a crucial matter, but it is only going to grow more and more important over the coming decades.  We wanted to be involved with this issue and to do our bit to help.

2) Is there a story about the name ‘PlentyWays’?

These days its very hard to come up with a name.  Finding something short, simple and with an available web address is difficult so when we finally came up with PlentyWays, we were really satisfied.  The idea behind it is that there are plenty of ways to make a difference.  That’s really our guiding philosophy: through the products we make available, the tips we provide, the services we review, we are trying to show people all the ways in which they can do their bit.

3) What was the toughest challenge in getting your company started and how you got over that?

There was a combination of challenges at the beginning.  It took us a long time to come up with our name, we even tried crowd sourcing it and put up a bounty of $200 we were so stumped, but even that proved fruitless.  The second big challenge was picking out the right products to offer our customers.  There are a lot of green products out there now and the number is increasing by the day.  We had to do a lot of research into what we thought were the most popular ones and would be most useful to our users.  Its a lot of work to then build relationships with the companies that make these products as well, which we are still working on.

4) If you had to pick one company in your lineup, which one would you showcase and why?

When people ask me what they can do to go green, the very first thing I ask them is if they have switched from incandescent bulbs to CFLs.  This is the most simple straightforward thing someone can do which is guaranteed to save both energy and money.  Sometimes it can be a challenge to convince people of a more expensive option that is more ecological, but using CFL bulbs is a complete no brainier.  Also people who are waiting for their current incandescent supply to run out before switching to CFLs – a quick calculation will show you that in almost all situations you should switch straight away.

5) How is PlentyWays going to grow in 2010? And how can other ecopreneurs help?

PlentyWays has huge plans!… We are working extremely hard on our blog, which we are going to focus on helping people to go green.  We will keep our ears to the ground on all the latest environmental apps, services and products and review them on our blog making it easy for budding ecopreneurs to take advantage of them.  We also want to provide some apps of our own.  The first we made was a very simple tool to stay on top of the latest green news, which pulls in news from some of the most popular green-focused websites out there e.g. TreeHugger and NY Times Environment.  We also want to work on a system that can monitor the energy and monetary savings people can make with various green goods.  For example, if someone purchases a few CFL bulbs from us, we would like to use the date they purchased to automatically calculate how much energy savings that has resulted in and the effect on their wallet.  It will probably use an average energy cost and an average figure for daily light usage as default, but would allow people to customize the calculation to their situation by entering their cost per KWHr and average light usage.  Stay tuned to our blog for details on all new features.

If you’ve read any of my posts about skin care products before you probably know I have issues with overly sensitive skin. Minor use of one tiny bit of the wrong thing makes me break out in all kinds of badness which could be anything from acne to hives.

Skin MD Natural may be just what the doctor ordered to solve my skin issues and give me radiant, healthy, break out free skin.

Read more of this story »

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Audi, Geneva Motor Show

Audi will finally show off the new A1 mini-car this week at the Geneva Motor Show. As usual, it will be available in Europe with an array of gas and diesel engines. In an interesting twist, though, a French web-site is reporting that Audi will also show a third e-tron concept based on the A1. If Audi sticks with the pattern it started at Detroit, this one will be dubbed the e-tron Geneva Concept car. Reports that Audi plans to build a electric version of the A1 for the road have circulated for some time.

While Audi plans to build a limited run of the R8 based e-tron that debuted at Frankfurt, an electric car based on the new A1 is most likely to be the brand’s first volume plug-in vehicle. Small, limited-range, urban commuter vehicles like the A1 will probably dominate the electric car arena for the foreseeable future until battery costs come down. A tip of the hat to quattroholic!

[Source: Le Buzz Auto via quattroholic.com]

Report: Audi to unveil A1 based e-tron concept in Geneva originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Diesel, Racing

We saw Gale Banks’ diesel-powered Sidewinder dragster at SEMA back in 2008, but that stationary display is not how the vehicle is meant to be experienced. No, this beast wants to move, and that’s just what it’ll do Saturday, March 6th at the Speedworld Dragstrip for NHRDA’s Desert Diesel Nationals in Wittmann, AZ. There, the dragster is going to try and run the quarter-mile in the low-mid 6’s “while emitting none of the black clouds of soot normally associated with diesel racing.” With a 1,200 hp General Motors Duramax 6.6L diesel V8 (or maybe something more powerful?) rocketing the Sidewinder down the track, we admit this isn’t the greenest of vehicles, but if you can go 200 miles per hour, you might be able to change some minds about just what diesel is capable of. Banks said in a statement that this is his goal: “Diesel has cleaned up its act, and we’re out to prove speed can come without the price of black smoke.”

[Source: Gale Banks]

Continue reading Gale Banks’ Power team shooting for 200 mph in diesel-powered Sidewinder dragster

Gale Banks’ Power team shooting for 200 mph in diesel-powered Sidewinder dragster originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our friend Nathaniel has done it again. Very cool DIY solutions for hydroponics and well drilling were not enough, now he has released a self watering 55 gallon drum “3-D” garden that is out of this world. His plans and DVD are top notch. Watch the video and see for yourself:

(BTW, a new podcast (Water Wars) has been uploaded at http://www.green-trust.org/podcasts/)

©2010 Green-Trust.Org. All Rights Reserved.

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1. Alternative Energy and Self Sufficiency Seminar, March 14th, Florence SC
2. New Podcast Service
3. Welcome to Self Reliance