Blog – Page 1502 – 2GreenEnergy.com

From Guest Blogger Ali Lawrence: The Future of Green Car Technology

craigshieldsPosted on December 3, 2014 Posted in Electric Vehicles

Everybody feels like they are unique; like they have at least some experiences no one else could ever understand. They have idiosyncrasies that set them apart from the billions of other people that have ever lived. The same thinking seems to apply on a larger scale. Every generation thinks they have ideas the world has not seen.

They think they’re living on some unprecedented cutting edge and that somehow, the world’s history can be charted into a steadily progressing incline culminating at this particular point in time. Finally, we’re here. We’re in the future. (more…)

No One Should Be Afraid to State the Truth: Big Energy Really Is No Friend To Humankind

craigshieldsPosted on December 2, 2014 Posted in Fossil Fuels

A reader who’s been around here for a great while responded to my newsletter this morning:

Craig. Sorry to see you’ve declared Big Energy your worst friend forever. Whenever waging warfare, it’s good to carry a Big Gun.

I respond: (more…)

Tagged with: 90-year-old industry that happens to be the powerful in the history of humankind, Big Energy Is No Friend To Humankind, corruption, demonstrably ruining the planet and poisoning everyone on it, Ed Rendell ex-governor or Pennsylvania, fossil fuel industry evil empire

Toyota’s First Hydrogen Car

craigshieldsPosted on December 2, 2014 Posted in Electric Vehicles

Anyone in the market for a little asinine reading material will love this piece on Toyota’s new hydrogen car, to be launched next year (several decades after the concept was initiated). Sure, the company predicts that sales volumes will not be astronomical: around 1,000 per year in the U.S. for the next 3-5 years. This means that, in the (unlikely) event that its target is met, 2015 sales will represent 1/160th of the installed base of battery electric vehicles here. (more…)

Tagged with: 95% of the world’s hydrogen comes from reforming methane, environmentally friendly transportation, installed base of electric vehicles, releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere, Toyota's First Hydrogen Car

Carlos Ghosn, Electric Vehicles, and China

craigshieldsPosted on December 2, 2014 Posted in Electric Vehicles

I friend sent me this interview the auto legend Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of a three-companies alliance: Renault, Nissan, and some Russian company with which I’m unfamiliar. I think the world of Carlos Ghosn as an executive. I attended the Los Angeles Auto Show in 2008, at which he spoke at length, and he impressed the heck out me with his commitment to EVs.

I also have great regard for Charlie Rose; in fact, I’m awestruck by his facility with so many disparate topics. Obviously, he as an incredible team of researchers, writers, coaches, etc., but he still blows me away. (more…)

Tagged with: Carlos Ghosn, Charlie Rose, China air pollution causing over a million deaths per year, Los Angeles Auto Show

The Environmental Validity of Electric Vehicles

craigshieldsPosted on December 1, 2014 Posted in Electric Vehicles

Very few people understand a sad truth about electric vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2014: right this very minute, most of them carry no real environmental benefit over gas- or diesel-powered vehicles, given an honest well-to-wheels analysis of the fuel they actually consume. Those who wish to understand this better should read the many comments made here (and elsewhere, I’m sure) by senior energy analyst Glenn Doty, like the note he made to a post I wrote yesterday. (more…)

Tagged with: Electric Vehicles

Range-Extended Electric Trucks – Is There Potential There?

craigshieldsPosted on December 1, 2014 Posted in Electric Vehicles

I just got a notification about a new range-extended EV company, co-founded by GM-legend Bob Lutz, that aspires to raise the capital necessary to manufacture and sell electric pick-up trucks. The guy sent me the following and asked for my opinion:

VIA (pictured here) employs a streamlined second-stage manufacturing process to integrate its proprietary V-DRIVE™ power train into new OEM vehicles, then sell directly to fleets under the VTRUX brand name. VIA VTRUX deliver up to 40-mile battery range and unlimited extended range, averaging more than 100 mpg in typical daily driving.
(more…)

Tagged with: Alt Car Expo in Santa Monica CA, fast-charging stations ubiquitous, GM-legend Bob Lutz, Range-Extended Electric Trucks

Humankind’s Chances for a “Soft Landing” Re: the Environment

craigshieldsPosted on November 30, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s another piece of my conversation with a reader on the subject of government’s role vis-à-vis bringing about positive change re: the deteriorating conditions surrounding our environment: climate disruption, ocean acidification, increasing levels of toxicity, loss of biodiversity, etc.

I had previously offered her a laundry list of actions that I would take in this arena if I suddenly found myself promoted to “king of the world.”

The reader comments in return: (more…)

Tagged with: climate disruption, deteriorating conditions surround our environment, Humankind’s Chances for a “Soft Landing”, increasing levels of toxicity, loss of biodiversity, ocean acidification

Are We Wealthy Enough to Address Our Environmental Issues?

craigshieldsPosted on November 29, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s a continuation of the discussion I’m having with a reader who doesn’t see the fairness in pulling together the money to feed the world’s people and preserve our environment. In a previous post, I wrote:

I don’t accept your basic premise that there isn’t enough money to accomplish the tasks that are clearly laid out in front of us. The oil companies have plenty of money to lead Congress and the rest of the world around by the nose. We just got finished spending more than $6 billion in the 2014 election campaign. The military budget of the United States is $640 billion dollars a year, more than all of the next 16 countries’ budgets combined. The wealthiest 1% of Americans own more than 40 percent of the entire value of goods in this nation.
(more…)

Tagged with: better LCAs lifecycle analyses, Close corporate tax loopholes, corporations cut environmental footprints, humane supply chains, internalizing the externalities

Our Future of Energy Policy–and Defunct Civilizations

craigshieldsPosted on November 29, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a short but wonderful article by Allan Hoffman, PhD USDoE (Ret.) that summarizes U.S. energy policy and where it may be headed vis-à-vis the Earth’s great empires and what eventually brought them down.

Of course, there are many great aphorisms that speak to the relationship of history to the future, perhaps the most famous of which comes to us from Spanish philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” In this case, the author closes with a similar notion: “We should learn from history, not just repeat it.” (more…)

Tagged with: constrained in terms of the essential live-giving commodities, George Santayana, like food and water, Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it