Gas 2.0 |
- Audi A1 e-tron Gets UQM Power
- Legislation Would End EPA’s Ability to Regulate Fuel Economy
- Popeye Would Love Spinach-based Hydrogen
- Suburbs Might be the Abandoned “Slums” of the Future
| Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:41 PM PST
The Autoblog is reporting that Audi’s eagerly-anticipated A1 e-tron extended-range hybrid will finally start hitting roads in Europe later this year, and UQM PowerPhase motors (charged by the Audi’s on-board, 254 cc Wankel rotary generator, of course) will be what’s pushing them. UQM’s PowerPhase motors – seen here previously, driving Saab’s new 9-3 ePower EV – will be providing 102 hp through the A1 e-tron’s front wheels, along with up to 221 lb-ft of instant electric torque. Enough, in other words, to make for some spirited traffic-carving.    UQM’s full press release, below.
Source: UQM, via the Autoblog.
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| Legislation Would End EPA’s Ability to Regulate Fuel Economy Posted: 14 Feb 2011 12:08 PM PST
Republican Fred Upton, from the 6th district in Michigan, introduced the bill to end the EPA's ability to regulate tailpipe emissions under the pretense of cutting back on government spending and save private companies billions of dollars. The bill would give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the power to regulate fuel economy, even though the EPA already has all the infrastructure in place to regulate and set fuel economy standards. How is that "smaller government?" There's nothing wrong with cutting back on wasteful spending, but why would he want to end the emissions standards that save lives and give us breathable air? The government got involved because they had to. Toxic chemicals are coming out of those tailpipes, and in the days before regulation air quality and health issues went hand in hand. Upton introduced this bill because it is going to cost automakers around $51 billion to meet the 2016 CAFE standards that dictate a fleetwide average of 34.1 MPG. Too bad I say. The CAFE standards haven't budged for two decades, and automakers didn't bother to improve their fuel efficiency, even though they've been through this before. California was forcing any automaker who wanted to sell cars in the largest automobile market in the country to build hybrids and electric vehicles 15 years ago. All three of the Big Three should have seen these standards coming, and they never should have ditched technology for the easy money of SUV sales. But they did. Upton's bill won't go anywhere. It does concern me though. Do Republicans intend to undo the last thirty years of progress in every area of the government, just to save money? Why don't they try fixing something, like Social Security or Medicare? I guess not. There is, however, a part of Upton's bill I agree with; banning California and other states from setting their own emissions standards. Again, I understand why they did it, but in the automaker's defense it costs them a lot more money to comply with separate standards. Money that could be better spent on innovation. That's the tough part though, isn't it? Trying to balance the wants of consumers with the regulations of the government while trying to make a profit can't be easy, and there is no lack of legislation dictating what American automakers can and can't do, preventing them from importing vehicles that the rest of the world gets to buy. Instead of trying to kill the EPA's entire emissions regulations, make it easier for automakers to import cars with fuel-efficient diesel engines and eliminate ridiculous laws like the Chicken Tax. That would save the automakers billions of dollars and allow them to import the fuel efficient vehicles that Europe already has. Meeting the 34.1 MPG average would be a cakewalk, and automakers could focus more energy on meeting the 2017-2025 standards that Upton also wants to block. I bet I hate politics as much as Upton hates progress. Source: Edmunds Auto Observer Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
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| Popeye Would Love Spinach-based Hydrogen Posted: 14 Feb 2011 10:32 AM PST
Cartoons seemed to have gotten it right again last week, when our sister site Cleantechnica posted news out of the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tenessee, which announced a new process that converts visible light into hydrogen fuel, courtesy of ordinary, produce-spec Spinach. Cleantechnica writer Tina Casey reports that researchers at Oak Ridge have been developing ways to harness the photosynthetic capabilities of spinach since the 1980s when they patented a way to turn spinach membranes into miniature electrical switches and began looking at ways to use spinach proteins to fabricate solar cells as a cheaper, renewable, and more readily available alternative to silicon. The end result of that research wasn’t electricity, but hydrogen, so the research seems to have paid off! CLICK HERE to get all the details from the original article. Source: Cleantechnica.
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| Suburbs Might be the Abandoned “Slums” of the Future Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:48 AM PST
Today’s car-dependent suburbs may become the “Wild West” ghost towns future, if you believe a recent report from Planning Institute, Australia. In their report, the PIA states that “Australia will be forced to rely on huge quantities of imported oil unless it radically overhauls its transport and urban policies,” which is old-news to readers who frequent eco-forward blogs like Gas 2.0, Cleantechnica, and TreeHugger, but it’s a bit of a surprise coming from a national urban planning journal. It makes sense to assume, I think, that in a scenario where fuel prices spike and the costs associated with transporting building material make more “urban sprawl” prohibitive, city planners will be looking at a re-centralization of large populations, which brings with it a whole host of transportation problems which have been (arguably) solved by cities like Tokyo and NewYork … but (arguably) not by Dallas, Miami, or Charlotte. In clicking through the links at PIA’s website, the writers of the studies are generally upbeat, envisioning scenarios where “At many homes, shopping centres and businesses, shared plug-in electric vehicles (PEV’s) are parked. Each such vehicle is part of a programme enabling renewable power to be stored in the vehicles’ batteries for release back into the grid as demand rises during the day,” which sounds OK to me! There’s much more to read over at PIA, with some of the most relevant links already cherry-picked by Warren McLaren over at TreeHugger.com (tanks, Warren!). Source: Planning Institute, Australia, via TreeHugger.
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