End our reliance on foreign oil? More than a dozen San Diegans are doing a lot more than just talking about it. They literally gave up their cars for a month by dropping their car keys in a lockbox as part of the first ever San Diego Low-Car Diet. Sponsored by Flexcar, Metropolitan Transit System, Amtrak, Air Pollution Control District, the American Lung Association, and Universal Studios, the participants pledged to use Flexcar and other modes of transportation to get around town for the month of February. Read more . . .
While the media has followed the success of the Toyota Prius gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle, it has been virtually silent on the success of the Jeep Liberty CRD diesel, which comes pre-filled with a mixture of conventional diesel oil and biodiesel. While sales of the Liberty CRD have been more modest than the Prius (just 10,000 units versus the Prius’s 100,000+) the Liberty’s sales figure has been double DaimlerChrysler’s projections. And it indicates that, against odds, there could be a growing U.S. market for diesel-powered vehicles, especially in light of the potential benefits of biodiesel, which has environmental advantages and can help wean the U.S. off foreign oil. Read more . . .
Freedom from Oil activists at the New York Auto Show in spring of 2007 unfurled a 20-foot banner inside the front entrance to the Jacob Javits Center, challenging Toyota to become a true environmental leader. The banner parodied Toyota’s current Tundra full-size pickup truck advertising blitz with a picture of the truck driving over a globe with the tagline, “Toyota: The Truck That’s Changing the Climate.” The banner flew at the entrance of the exhibition hall for several minutes before police arrested the two Freedom from Oil climbers who placed it. Read more . . .
Transportation is one of the largest sources of air pollution in the US and Canada. This sector not only contributes to the formation of smog and acid rain but also produces a quarter of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
To address the issue, the Federal Government has announced measures to reduce the impact of vehicle emissions on the environment and human health. They include regulating cars and light-duty trucks to use fuel more efficiently and working with the United States to establish an environmentally ambitious standard for all North American vehicles. Read more . . .
At first, hybrid vehicles touted their freedom from electric cords. Now it appears that the electric cord might be the salvation of hybrids, a vehicle type that might need a new wrinkle to continue its upward climb. When the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles were first introduced to the US market, their manufacturers were quick to point out that they never had to be plugged in. Since the plug-in General Motors EV-1 was considered by GM to be a dismal failure in the marketplace, the fact that the Prius and Insight never had to be connected to a receptacle was seen as a major plus. And now large-format lithium-ion rechargeable Read more . . .