Gas 2.0

Tesla: Elon Musk on Gavin Newsom’s Radio Show
Students Build Hydrogen Vehicle That Gets 1,336 MPG
Plug-in Vehicle Tracker Now Available
Propane Powered Mowers Cut Grass, Emissions, and Prices

Tesla: Elon Musk on Gavin Newsom’s Radio Show

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 03:30 PM PDT

Unless you were sleeping, you should know that last week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom challenged Portland Mayor Sam Adams to the Great Electric Vehicle Race. It took no time for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to get into the game. So it comes as no surprise that on Saturday, July 13th, Gavin had Tesla founder, Elon Musk as a guest on his show.

California based Tesla produces the only highway legal electric vehicle on the road. Last month, Tesla secured $465 million in federal low interest loans through the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the administration’s plan to have one million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015.

Read more of this story »

Plug-in Vehicle Tracker Now Available

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 08:18 AM PDT

With announcements being made every day about new plug-in electric vehicles, it’s hard to keep track of what’s what. Well, that problem, in part, has been solved with the new plug-in vehicle tracker that has been launched by Plug In America.

The tracker is updated monthly and includes highway-capable cars and trucks, 2 and 3 wheeled and commercial vehicles. Low-speed electric vehicles (or neighborhood electric vehicles) such as the Maya 300 and conversions are not included.

You can submit updates to the list by emailing Plug In America at info@pluginamerica.org.

Propane Powered Mowers Cut Grass, Emissions, and Prices

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 08:14 AM PDT

I have a guilty concscience. You see, even though I aspire for literary greatness one day (hey, we all need dreams) most of my jobs have involved menial, manual labor. Right now, that is landscaping in a fancy-pants Connecticut town where most of the people have more money than free time.

But landscaping is a dirty, dirty business. My boss will sometimes go through a 100 gallons of gas in a week between his trucks, mowers, blowers, and trimmers. What’s more, although the EPA is imposing new regulations for small gasoline engines, they don’t take effect until 2012 (although California has already enacted its own standards). Engines under 50 horsepower can contribute significant smog emissions in some states because most of these mowers don’t even have basic catalytic converters, and run on mixed gas-oil fuel.

But there is an even better solution, one that for some landscaping companies seems only…natural. Natural gas, to be exact.