Fuel Efficiency · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with fuel efficiency

Dubai Greenwashing and (Ew!!) Inedible Corn

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by Starre Vartan · 04/17/08

Way more amusing than environmental news has a right to be, as usual!

corn, dubai, farming, fiat, fuel efficiency, greenwashing

Good News Bears

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by Starre Vartan · 04/03/08

For Long-Time Readers of Eco Chick, The Good News Bears Are Back!

There’s a bevy of great green news I want to share with you all in case you hadn’t seen it:

Hummer Goes Under….Eventually

HummerGuy.net has been informed by official sources that there will be no “next generation” refresh on the H2 and that within a few years – not fast enough for some of us – it will finally fade to black (“Reports have the H2’s end of production between 2011 and 2014″)

Hah, I almost feel badly for HummerGuy.net….but maybe he can be NonGasGuzzlingRoadHoggGuy.Net instead and write about fuel cells!

Sundance Channel + Barneys + Loomstate support GREEN living

As part of the Season 2 kick-off of “The Green” on Sundance Channel, the network has partnered with Barneys New York and the eco-chic fashion brand Loomstate to launch a first of its kind, national T-shirt recycling program. Beginning April 13th, consumers will be encouraged to drop off old t-shirts at all Barneys’ locations nationwide. Loomstate will “re-fashion” the T-shirts (re-style, re-dye, re-print, etc.) to create a new, limited edition T-shirt collection to be sold exclusively at Barneys for Holiday 2008. Participating consumers will receive a 20% discount on women’s Loomstate for Barneys Green and men’s Loomstate merchandise from April 13-27. Proceeds from the program will benefit 1% for the Planet.

I’m going to be attending the kick-off event for this next week and donating some tees to the project- maybe I’ll get to see them redesigned!

Survey Says! Americans are finally catching onto the peak oil and environmental crises:

The survey gave Americans the choice of seven categories and asked the following question:
What do you believe should be the highest priority, in terms of investing money and resources, in order to achieve a meaningful technological advancement in the next 10 years?
The result in short, has Americans placing the solution to the “gas crisis” ahead of a cure to cancer, heart disease or other similar medical breakthroughs.
Specifically, 37 percent of Americans thought money and resources should be placed into a breakthrough in fuel efficiency or alternative fuels, while 30 percent wanted the effort placed against an advance in medicine.
The environment followed with 14 percent, security and defense tallied 10 percent, transportation and space exploration each has three percent and telecommunication and media two percent.

I guess all us bloggers are doing our part with leading innovation on the Internet already

ecofashion, fuel efficiency, hummers

Rally for a Strong, Clean 2007 Energy Bill!

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by Starre Vartan · 11/11/07

By Guest-Blogger Lorna Li

This fall auto industry workers, environmental organizations and student groups rally hard for Congress to pass a 2007 Energy Bill
that includes higher fuel efficiency and renewable energy standards. Will you rally with them?

What’s on the plate is a fuel efficiency standard that the Senate already approved in June – the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standard, which calls for auto manufacturers to raise mileage for cars and light trucks to an average of 35 mpg by 2020. An alliance of the Big Three Auto Makers in America – General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler – are aggressively lobbying Congress to lower that standard 32 mpg by 2022.

A large group of auto workers and dealers have broken from the industry in order to campaign in favor of 35 mpg by 2020. As members of the American auto industry who have designed, built and sold automobiles in this country for decades, they state that 35 mpg can be achieved, will create jobs, and can help the U.S. end its foreign oil addiction.

In their report titled Energy Bill Must Guarantee Real Oil Savings, the Union of Concerned Scientists calculated the difference between the 35 mpg by 2020 and 32 mpg by 2022. Here is what they found:

Barrels of Oil Saved Per Day:
– 500,000 Auto Lobby Proposal
– 1.2 Million Senate CAFE Compromise

Consumer Savings at the Pump:
– $11 Billion Auto Lobby Proposal
– $25 Billion Senate CAFE Compromise

Emissions Reductions
– 85mmt CO2 Auto Lobby Proposal

In addition to the 35 mpg by 2020 proposal, another provision for the 2007 Energy Bill up for debate includes a Renewable Electricity Standard that requires 15% of U.S. electricity to be derived from renewable sources, also by 2020. This provision alone can spark a thriving, alternative energy industry in the U.S., we need more.

Environmental and student groups have also been aggressively lobbying against a scary nuclear provision that stands to provide unlimited loan guarantees to the nuclear power industry.

Gas prices keep going up with no end in sight. A new Energy Bill that includes the highest standards in fuel efficiency and renewable energy will not only save American consumers money, it will significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce foreign oil consumption, thereby making us better global citizens.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Tell Congress you want a strong, clean 2007 Energy Bill by signing this petition.

2. Send this letter calling for 35 mpg by 2020 in support of American auto industry workers.

2. Send a petition in favor of a Nuke-Free America.

For more about Lorna Li, jump to the next page.

Amazon, automobiles, car, cars, climate change, conservation, consumption, design, eating, electric, electricity, emissions, Energy, Events, fall, farm, fuel efficiency, gas, India, magazine, MPG, nuclear, nuclear power, oil, parties, rainforest, reduce, spa, style, travel

Did You See the Snowman Last Night at the Debates?

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by Starre Vartan · 07/24/07

I thought the Dems debates last night were the best I’ve ever seen (I watched them streaming on Cnn.com since I don’t have cable). That the questions came from real people via YouTube was THE BEST IDEA EVER! (and the videos submitted by us crazy citizens were funny, sad, poignant, and most importantly, touched on really tough issues!)

So first off, CONGRATS to all those questioners that I share the great USA with…YOU made me proud to be an American (the politicians, well, they were being politicians, you know?. Of course the highlight was the snowman/global warming question! Check it out!

(Answers taken from the NYTimes transcript of the debates.)

COOPER: It’s a funny video. It’s a serious question. Congressman Kucinich?

KUCINICH: Well, we have to understand the connection between global warring and global warming. Because when we start talking about wars for oil, we’re essentially keeping the same approach to energy.

(APPLAUSE)

So I’m saying we need to move away from reliance on oil and coal and toward reliance on wind and solar.

KUCINICH: Anderson, that’s the basis of my WGA, Works Green Administration, where we take an entirely new approach to organize the entire country around sustainability, around conservation. We don’t have to have our snowmen melting, and the planet shouldn’t be melting either.

COOPER: Are the people on this stage, are your fellow candidates, are they green enough?

KUCINICH: No. And I think that the reason is that if you support, for example, in Iraq, if you say that Iraq should privatize its oil for the U.S. oil companies, then what you’re doing is you’re continuing a commitment to use more oil. If you believe that all options should be put on the table with respect to Iran, that’s about oil.

So we need to move away from reliance on oil…

COOPER: Time.

KUCINICH: … and that’s really connected to our defense policy, and I’m the one who gets the connection.

COOPER: All right.

(APPLAUSE)

WHY didn’t other candidates answer such an important question???? Too hard???

automobiles, Bush, car, carbon, cars, climate change, coal, conservation, consumption, dress, eating, electric, Energy, epa, fuel efficiency, fur, gas, gas companies, Global Warming, health, Home, nuclear, nuclear power, NYTimes, Obama, oil, oil companies, opinion, Politics, reduce, religion, sales, spa, sustainability, taxes, Technology, video, waste

Just a thought

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by Jennifer Veilleux · 05/01/07

Recently I found myself engaged in several discussions about taking care of our environment as a matter of personal integrity, choice, and responsibility. One such conversation happened with a stranger in a training course I was attending.

The man works for the EPA. He looked to be in his early 30s. He jumped into a conversation I was having with someone else about hybrid vehicles. He said that he owned one and said the name of it, one I had not heard of. He said, “Yeah I traded my Prius in for something bigger because we’re thinking about kids.” Having them, that is. So when I asked, this guy explained that he’d purchased a hybrid SUV.

Hybrid SUV, yeah, I think it was the one that Kermit the Frog was plugging during the SuperBowl in 2006.

Now, maybe I am a bit uptight about gas guzzlers, but his statement that the thing gets about 32 miles to the gallon didn’t wow me. In fact, I was shocked that someone informed, someone that works at the EPA, would buy an SUV, regardless of its hybrid status. He was incensed. “Look, we did a lot of comparison shopping; fuel efficiency, leg room…”, but here my brain just froze. I was incredulous. Are you telling me this guy is arguing that he feels validated buying an SUV because of LEGROOM?

He then started trailing off about how he used to be an environmental activist…he was one of the first hybrid buyers…but so many people at EPA are just bureaucrats and what is the point…and his whole house is outfitted with compact fluorescents…

I kept my cool and stated in the most compassionate way I could muster that I believe it is important that each and everyone of us does our part. I know that we can all justify what we do with the whole balancing out argument: I wear fur, but don’t eat meat, I walk to work so I can fly all over the world 15 times a year…I can have 5 kids because they are all so amazing…it is very difficult to have a net zero impact, but we can make an effort in our consumption rates to act responsibly. It is the easiest step we can make. And the sacrifice? Well, is it really a sacrifice?

At the conclusion of the training class our EPA man went around the room collecting our plastic bottles in a bag, saving them from the trash. When he got to me he looked me in the eye, and, with a bit of cynicism, said, “I am taking my personal initiative here.” I was quite happy. Though he probably thinks I am a jerk, I hope my words helped jerk him back to center (or maybe alittle to the left).