While the US Republican Party continues to be the only major political party in the WORLD to deny that climate change is even occurring, much less that humans are the cause, the world wide business community is becoming increasingly concerned about the consequences to their bottom line. As I’ve been predicting all along, once profitability becomes an issue in this regard,…
I try to keep abreast of the development of battery technology and publish groundbreaking information as it occurs. The following article is kinda wonky and will interest the more technical of you getting this. The important takeaway is the conclusion: “Frankel said he is optimistic that energy storage will cross the tipping points needed to take root on the grid…
Most of us, especially those of us in our comfortable homes in Chicago’s Quiet North Shore Suburbs, feel quite safe and secure. We can’t imagine an enormous explosion that could destroy our homes, lives and communities like what happened in the small Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic as described below in Mike Brune’s Blog. Think again. Many receiving this may remember…
In case you’ve missed this great news… Kansas City bids to become EV mecca Who’s doing it: Kansas City Power & Light Partners: Nissan and ChargePoint Charging stations planned: 1,001 240-volt stations; 15 Nissan-branded fast-charging stations Cost to install: $20 million Cost to consumers to charge vehicles: Free for the first 2 years. Nissan will cover electricity costs at…
I guess the sky isn’t falling after all. Looks like the auto industry can meet government regulations AND sell lots of cars and truck and make record profits. This happens every time new regulations are proposed. They cry that they can’t do it, that nobody will buy the vehicles and they’ll go broke. Then they go out and meet…
I hate say I told ya so (not really) but….. Battery costs for electric vehicles are falling faster than industry estimates — study Umair Irfan, E&E reporter Costs of battery packs in electric vehicles are declining faster than expected, according to a new report. While industry analysts predicted battery pack costs would decline from $1,000 per kilowatt-hour to…
Cost and reliability are the two major objections I regularly hear as to why people don’t believe we will ever get off of fossil fuels, and certainly, not any time soon. The following article addresses both issues as it relates to the cost and availability of solar energy storage. I firmly believe that green energy will completely take over energy production long…
The following article is a good summary on where things stand on EV development as we head into 2015. Industry ‘can’t give up on EVs’ Despite cheap gas, developers press on Automakers remain under regulatory pressure to make giant gains in the average fuel economy and emissions of their U.S. fleets by the 2025 model year. Automotive News January…
It has been a while since I wrote about automotive news and how we are going to move Beyond Oil (the name of the Sierra Club Campaign to get the U.S. off of oil by 2050). In fact, the Sierra Club Board of Directors, of which I am one, voted last week at our November Board meeting, to officially adopt…
On July 27, 2001 Dan Becker, the director of fuel economy standards for the Sierra Club at the time, and I went to the White House to urge the Bush Administration that the auto industry had the technology on the shelf to immediately improve MPG of the automotive fleet and that they should and could dramatically increase CAFE (Corporate Automotive…