For All Those Who Are Graduating and Those That Aren't

It is a little off topic but the WSJ has a good article for everyone that is graduating this year. With the sudden change from being poor to actually receiving a real paycheck, many college graduates get into trouble. This is about the time when recent grads are inundated with credit card offers and then are tempted to buy flat screen TVs and go on vacation with this new found credit. This article points out that with a little dollar sense all of these new luxuries can be enjoyed as well as setting yourself up for a comfortable retirement. Believe it or not, as soon as a student graduates, retirement planning should be added to their budget. Employees should always take advantage of the companies 401k program and full advantage of any company match. With the time value of money and compounding the money that you put into retirement savings now will be worth much more later.

The Greener Side of the NY Auto Show

Below is a video with newest green cars from our domestic auto makers. You can tell that most of this technology is quite a few year off given the fervor at which auto makers are fighting the proposed raise in CAFE standards. If the auto industry really does get serious about this new clean technology and brings it to market they will easily be able to avoid any increased government intervention in the auto sector.

Someone is Overthinking the Problem

This article at AutoBlogGreen (original WSJ article) describes the pilot program that Oregon is conducting to tax drivers per mile instead of per gallon. This pilot program requires installing a GPS system on participating vehicles that tracks the number of miles driven. When the driver refuels, the GPS unit uploads the miles traveled and resets. The specially equipped gas pump calculates the tax based on the mileage instead of the gallons pumped.

There have been a few criticisms of this system. The first is that fuel efficient vehicles are taxed at a higher rate per gallon then gas guzzlers. The second is that while Oregon says that they do not track where the owners have been, and I believe them, they may have the ability to determine where the owners are at any given time, a clear privacy issue. In addition to the two issues above, my issues are that heavier vehicles cause greater wear to the road and therefore the tax per gallon is fairer. Second, installing these units in all cars and equipping all gas pumps just seams so unnecessary and expensive. If the end goal is truly to increase revenues for road projects, why not just raise the current gas tax?

If you are Forced to Build it, Will They Buy it

AutoBlogGreen had a good report on the latest rumblings of the effort to raise the CAFE mpg minimums. Before the May 8th commerce committee vote to raise fuel economy standards to 35mpg over the next 10 years, automakers will get one more chance to provide input into this process. The automakers are trying to persuade Washington to allow them to raise fuel economy at a rate that is demanded by the consumer thereby also profitable for them. The automakers do not want to be forced to produce vehicles that consumer don't want.

New Study

In a study released by Stanford University, the effects of using a high blend (E100) for all of the United States transportation needs were assessed. This study found that ethanol produced more ozone in urban areas and could lead to more related deaths each year. He also determined the land area needed to produce all that fuel and came to the conclusion that clean electricity used to charge batteries or make hydrogen is a better choice.

The Study is being questioned by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights because it is indirectly funded by ExxonMobil. I’m a little unclear of the connection and why ExxonMobil would support clean electricity over ethanol. If anything ethanol would be the easier of the two for ExxonMobil to get involved with as it can be added to its current product or gas added to ethanol to make E85.

Progress Report

The WSJ has a good summary or progress report on the leading alternative energy sources. The good news is that progress is being made and only looks to accelerate as the cost of these energy sources drop. All of the energy sources looked at have too many disadvantages to be our sole method of energy production, collectively energy dependence will someday be a reality. What this means for the automotive industry is that most likely electricity will power our vehicles in the future. This electricity may be stored in the form of batteries powering an electric motor or hydrogen powering a fuel cell or a modified internal combustion engine.

Tesla Motors Top Down

If you haven't heard of Tesla Motors, they are the company that is trying to re-legitimize the electric car. After all major auto manufactures have given up on the concept this new company is going about the electric car in a different way. Instead of trying to design and build an electric car that is cheap and needs to be sold by the tens to hundreds of thousands, Tesla is building a $100k sports car that needs to sell about 1000 a year to be profitable. When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense and is normally how new technologies are introduced, from the top down. In this interview, Martin Eberhard makes this point by giving examples of flat panel TVs, cell phones and refrigerators, all were very expensive in the beginning and sold in small quantities to those who could afford it, but eventually came down in price and were then priced for the general public.

Small can be Safe

The Smart car is coming to the US and it is TINY. It gets good gas mileage, has lots of interior space and while it is not going to carry Sheetrock home from Home Depot is overall relatively practical. But the one thing that comes to mind is that with all of the huge SUVs on America's roads, is this tiny car safe. Well the fine folks at top gear ran one head on into a concrete wall to find out. The result: it did very well, in fact the doors even still opened and closed after the accident. Here's the video.

Who Knew That Alternative Renewable Energy is Cheap

So I always get these flyers in my electric bill telling me about the NJ Clean Power Choice Program (other states have similar programs) and I usually just toss them thinking that it would be very expensive to get all our electricity from renewable sources. Today I actually figured it out, and then signed up. I looked at the past years electricity usage and guess what, getting all of our electric from a mixture 50% wind, 1% solar and 49% low impact hydro would cost an additional $3.90 a month, 8 months out of the year. It will however shoot up to a whopping $5.53 for the summer months, and this is with central a/c usage. Not only will it cost you less then the price of a lunch each month but each household that enrolls will reduce CO2 emissions by over 10,000 lbs a year, the equivalent of planting 1.35 acres of trees. Not a bad deal.

Texas Never Ceases to Amaze Me

The mayor of Austin Texas has an unusual transportation, energy and pollution solution. The mayor's plan is to significantly increase the number of electric cars in Austin, then while the cars are parked during the day they will be plugged into the power grid and sell power back to the city when it is needed and charge the cars when it is not. This will allow Austin to purchase much more of it's electricity from wind sources, currently not possible because wind generators produce the most at night when it is not needed. Electric cars could charge at night with wind power and then provide power to the grid during the day. This may be a far fetched idea but it makes sense, the technology is available and it has support. The only major obstacle is the auto industry which doesn't mass produce an electric vehicle anymore.

Save the world by driving a BMW 7 series

David Pogue has an excellent write up of BMW's new hydrogen 7 series and hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels. What makes hydrogen such an attractive energy storage devices is that it could easily be created from clean energy such as wind or solar, it can be created at fueling stations where it is needed eliminating the need to distribute it, it can be used in liquid form to power a modified traditional internal combustion engine or used in a fuel cell to power an electric motor.

I agree with David Pogue and applaud BMW's decision to leap frog the semi-clean alternative fuels and push what I believe will end up being the worlds most dominate clean energy storage device, until something better comes along.

Investors Want to Know: Ethanol vs. Biodiesel

The Motley Fool has an interesting article about the Ethanol vs. Biodiesel debate from an investors perspective. This is a good angle to use in order to determine what may be our next major alternative energy. If the energy source is profitable for companies then they will support it, a major hurdle in the past. Both of these fuels have environmental benefits but also have major disadvantages. “the sad truth is that even if all of the corn and soybean production in America were dedicated to their production, the country would replace only 12% of gasoline consumption and meet a mere 6% of diesel demand.”


However, this is a good start. As production technology improves, the gallons per acre will improve which some experts estimate from todays output of hundreds of gallons per acre to thousands of gallons per acre by 2030.

Hydrogen Fuel is Only A Matter of Time

Pennylane over at Bio Banter had a good write up about an article describing hydrogen as the fuel of the future. Penny is excited about hydrogen and rightfully so. Hydrogen has many hurdles to clear before it can become a viable energy source such as establishing a distribution network, efficient storage and clean production. Once it clears those hurdles, hydrogen will be a versatile energy storage medium that has all of the advantages of gas without the greenhouse gases.

3 Starving Children Per Gallon

According to this article, the increase in ethanol production is raising the cost of food all over the world. Most ethanol and biodiesel is made from corn, which is also the main ingredient in livestock feed and corn syrup. With corn prices going up, nearly all food, from chicken to cereal is effected by it.

World's Second Largest Oil Field is Running on Fumes

According to this article, the second largest oil field in the world is beginning to dry up. This is confirming what most have already known: oil is a very finite resource. As oil becomes more and more scarce, the price will obviously escalate. As our economy is effected by dramatically increased prices, the already unstable Middle East will become a very dangerous situation for the United States as we become more dependent on Middle Eastern oil.

Of course both of these situation can be avoided or minimized with continual increases in fuel efficiency in the automotive industry and an increase in funding for research or subsidies from the government for alternative energy.

Ethanol: The Sweet Smell of a Barroom Floor

According to this article ethanol is not the clean petroleum substitute that some would lead you to believe. Ethanol's manufacturing plants are getting a similar welcome to nuclear power plants and landfills, with a similar motto: Not in my backyard! Some benefits to having an Ethanol plant in your neighborhood include:

“ethanol plants deplete aquifers, draw heavy truck traffic, pose safety concerns, contribute to air pollution and produce a sickly-sweet smell akin to that of a barroom floor.”

The Supreme Court Rules that the EPA Has to do Their Job

The Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate green house gases (CO2) in automobile exhaust emissions. The Bush Administration has maintained that the EPA does not he the authority to regulate the CO2 emissions. This ruling does not force the EPA to regulate CO2 but there will likely be further legal action if they do not.

It will be very interesting to see how the EPA and the automotive industry responds to this new pressure for lower CO2 emissions. The problem is that the level of CO2 emitted from an automobile is directly related to the size of an internal combustion engine's size. Unless there is a technological breakthrough, one to three things must happen in order to lower a vehicles CO2 emissions. The first is smaller lighter vehicles with smaller engines. The Second is hybrid vehicles where an electric motor can allow for the use of a smaller engine. The third are vehicles that are powered with alternative fuels such as electricity or hydrogen. For the third to lower greenhouse gases the electricity or hydrogen must be made from non CO2 producing sources such as solar, wind or geothermal.