This promises to be the moment when green goes mainstream

For the past two years, one phrase has appeared so often on BusinessGreen.com that we really ought to use it as a tag line. The details vary depending on the story, but it always tends to run a little something like this: "the product/project/car will be available from/come online in 2010/11/12".
Regardless of the unsatisfying fudge delivered at Copenhagen and the fact that the negotiations to deliver a binding deal will now dominate next year in the same way that the build up to Copenhagen dominated the past 12 months, 2010 marks the beginning of a critical period in the development of the low-carbon economy. This promises to be the moment when green goes mainstream.

Some will argue that this has already happened and if Copenhagen demonstrated one thing conclusively it is that climate change and the environment are now firmly entrenched as a central feature of the global political narrative. We might not be in agreement on how to tackle it, but we are in agreement that it is an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic challenge, and that it provides unprecedented and potentially gargantuan opportunities for the business community.

But if low-carbon thinking has become a normalised component of political and corporate thinking over the past three or four years, 2010 is the year when it really begins the long journey towards changing both the way businesses operate and people live.

Take electric vehicles as just one example. For the last couple of years, electric cars have been largely synonymous with the G-Wiz and other small quadricycles, which while highly successful will remain unlikely to break into the mainstream. All that will change in 2010 as the first wave of electric vehicles from conventional car manufacturers hit the roads. Nissan will launch the all-electric Leaf next year, while Peugeot, Mitsubishi, BMW, Daimler and others are all set to start selling electric vehicles either next year or in early 2011. Perhaps most significantly, GM looks set to win the race to launch a plug-in hybrid with the first Chevy Volt's slated to roll off the production line in late 2010.

The industry will be watching closely to see how these cars fare, but with early trials promising and generous incentives in place from governments around the world the prospects are good, not least because, electric engine aside, they vary little from conventional cars. Some of these zero emission electric vehicles will boast top speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour and ranges of between 100 and 150 miles between charging. They will work for most people for most journeys. Moreover, GM's plug in hybrid, which will be rapidly followed by rival models from Toyota and others, will allow drivers to travel 40 miles before the conventional engine kicks in, providing staggering fuel efficiency and an overall range of 300 miles.

This phenomenon is being repeated in countless industries. In 2010, mainstream energy companies will continue to accelerate investment in renewable energy and more and more wind farms, solar parks, biomass plants and even marine energy devices will come online. Similarly, we will see more airlines undertaking test flights utilising blends of biofuel, more technology firms debuting devices that use ever lower amounts of power, and more businesses re-engineering supply chains and refurbishing buildings to cut their emissions.

It seems that in a way the car companies were right when they used the excuse that it took them years to develop new low-carbon vehicles in order to avoid more demanding emission standards. Businesses really started to think about the imperative to develop cleaner and more sustainable products back in 2006, and now, precisely on schedule, a wave of increasingly mainstream clean technologies is arriving.

Policy measures will also continue to accelerate the adoption of these technologies, most notably in the UK in the form of the Carbon Reduction Commitment and the Clean Energy Cashback feed-in tariff scheme, both of which come into effect in the spring and both of which should serve to further normalise board-level interest in energy efficiency and the installation of small-scale renewable energy systems.

And there will be further evidence of the mainstreaming of environmental issues in May (or possibly March) when climate change policy promises to play a surprisingly prominent role in the British election.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, it is currently looking just about odds on that President Obama will win his tussle with the Senate and get a US climate bill passed at some point during the first few months of the year.

None of this is to suggest that 2010 will deliver a genuine step change in the global economy's development of low-carbon technologies and business models. The high-profile 10:10 campaign for everyone to cut emissions by 10 per cent in 2010, for example, is a well intentioned pipe dream.

But the next 12 months will fire the starting pistol on a decade which, if the pace of technical development continues to accelerate at its current rate, will ensure that the concept of a green business becomes meaningless. Not because they start to disappear, but because with lower carbon businesses dominating the mainstream virtually all businesses will be striving to be as green as possible.

F3DM start selling its first electric car

Chinese battery and car maker BYD (1211.HK), backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffet, said it has raised its 2010 sales target, as it prepares to roll out its first electric cars.

BYD, 10 percent owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), aims to sell 800,000 vehicles next year, up from a previous target of 700,000 units, said Paul Lin, manager of the company's marketing department.

He attributed the revision to robust demand from Chinese consumers following Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) economic stimulus plan, which includes several measures specifically aimed at boosting car sales.

"The company already reached its 2009 target of 400,000 vehicles in November, so now we are setting our 2010 target to double that number at 800,000 units," Lin said, adding that this year's final sales should come in at around 440,000 units.

BYD's F3 sedan was the best-selling car in China in the first 11 months of this year, leading other popular domestic and foreign models, such as, Hyundai Motor's (005380.KS) new Elantra and Chery Automobile's QQ, official data showed.

To help meet market demand, BYD's new bus plant in the central Chinese city of Changsha and a car plant in the northwestern city of Xian will start operation next year, adding up to 700,000 units of capacity, Lin said.

Henry Li, general manager of BYD Auto's export arm, told Reuters in July that the firm aims to be a major global player by 2025, with vehicle sales of 8-9 million. [ID:nHKG366761]

BYD, which had sold several hundred of its plug-in hybrid, F3DM, unveiled in December of 2008, plans to start selling its first electric car, the e6, in China in the first quarter of 2010, Lin said.

The e6 had passed government safety inspections in the country and received other necessary permits, he said, adding the firm remained committed to export the model to the United States next year.

BYD's shares, traded in Hong Kong, have surged more than 422 percent since the beginning of this year, leading a roughly 49 percent gain in the broader market .HSI and bolstering its founder, Wang Chuanfu, to the top of Forbes 2009 list of China's wealthiest.

The shares fell 3.78 percent in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, lagging a 0.51 percent fall of the market.

all-electric cars may eventually become affordable and negate their appeal

With the Prius in high demand, Toyota is making plans to launch an all-new hybrid subcompact vehicle in late 2011. A concept version the all-new hybrid-only model for the budding subcompact segment will be unveiled on Jan. 11, the first day of the North American International Auto Show’s press preview. While the Prius has a starting price of $22,400, the subcompact, which will be built on the Yaris platform, will be sold for about $15,760. The new Toyota will compete with a rumored hybrid version of Honda’s Fit subcompact.

Prius accounts for more than 75 percent of Toyota’s hybrid sales worldwide, so Toyota hopes the new hybrid will help secure its dominant position in the future. Toyota plans to produce around 150,000 annually, and by adding another high-profile hybrid to Toyota’s lineup it will not only boost sales, but also increase the profitability of the automaker’s hybrid car business by reducing the per-vehicle cost of components. Some analysts are concerned Toyota might be committing itself too much to its hybrids, however, as all-electric cars may eventually become affordable and negate their appeal. “Toyota is completely convinced about the potential for hybrids spreading to all segments,” one auto analyst told The Detroit News: “That has yet to be proven. There aren’t many places in the world where hybrids have caught on.” Toyota though seems to be hedging their bet. Its battery venture with Japan’s Panasonic Corp. is not only boosting its production capacity of nickel-metal hydride batteries in its traditional hybrids, but also providing an avenue for a battery-powered pure electric car due out in 2012.

She pointed out that Europcar was making green car hire more accessible to customers

A new study undertaken by car hire firm Europcar has revealed that Britons are falling behind when it comes to green motoring, however young drivers are leading the push for change.

The annual Europcar Observatory, an independent survey of 5,000 drivers across Europe found that 45 per cent of Brits had changed their manner of driving in some way to help save the environment, compared with 54 per cent in mainland Europe.

But in a sign of a change in thinking when it comes to car ownership, of those who have already changed their driving habits, 79 per cent are already using car hire in some form, with mostly the under 35s age bracket having the biggest impact. In the survey, over 50 per cent of drivers in this age range said they planned to give up their car and 60 per cent would opt for a car share service instead.

But as 45 per cent were happy to drive differently to be green, Britons are not yet ready to make the change to a hybrid or an electric car, compared with 65 per cent of drivers in Europe. The study showed that European drivers had a higher exposure and greater experience with alternative fuelled cars, with 30 percent having driven one compared to only 18 per cent in the UK.

Marketing director of Europcar, Catriona Lougher said it seemed that most households were doing their bit by recycling, using low voltage light bulbs and turning down the thermostat, but when it comes to maintaining the car, keeping the green message at the front of the mind was still a challenge.

She said that a car is still considered a status symbol in the UK and that using a more cost efficient car or changing driving habits by easing off the pedal or using the car less was still not a priority for most British drivers.

She pointed out that Europcar was making green car hire more accessible to customers by offering free delivery and collection to a fleet comprising some of the newest and most fuel-efficient vehicles on the market, including hybrids.

electric car plant at the old NASA site in Downey, has donated 100 remote-control cars to needy children in the area

Tesla Motors, which is in negotiations to build an electric car plant at the old NASA site in Downey, has donated 100 remote-control cars to needy children in the area.

The city received the toys this week and distributed them to True Lasting Connections Resource Center, or TLC, PTA HELPS, Angel Tree, Downey Police Officers' Association and Downey Firemen's Association. Those organizations will pass the toys along to children in time for the holidays.

"We are extremely thankful and appreciate Tesla's generosity," said Downey Mayor Anne Bayer. "Our local needy children will have one more reason to smile about this holiday season."

Tesla has memorandum of understanding to build an electric car production line on the Downey Studios property off Lakewood Boulevard and Columbia Way. The San Carlos-based company also is considering a site in Long Beach, the former Boeing 717 site, also off Lakewood Boulevard.

Free Electric Cars

The government wants to get gas-powered cars off the street by giving such a big tax rebate on electric cars, that they are free. Demand is high -- www.FreeElectricCar.com is "selling" around 60 golf carts (or electric vehicles) a day.

The story was featured last week on CNN Anderson Cooper and on Fox Business with John Stossel and ABC News. Customers like the free and green aspect of the cars.

Here are the top 5 benefits to owning an electric car: "Hurry to cash in on one of the best opportunities yet for tax payers. You must purchase a qualified vehicle on or before December 31, 2009 to qualify for the tax rebate to get your free electric vehicle. This is even better than the cash for clunkers or the homebuyer's rebate," said Drive Electric CEO Colin Reilly who started www.freeelectriccar.com

With each electric vehicle purchased, the owner will receive a certified "Proof of Purchase" to document the date of purchase and a copy of the IRS Certification letter. Then they should use the new tax form 8936 to claim the credit. The vehicles can be purchased online and take approximately 4-6 weeks to be delivered. It is a tax credit which means a dollar for dollar reduction in taxes owed to the IRS. It is not an income deduction. For example, a 4 passenger vehicle at www.FreeElectricCar.com is on sale for $6,496. The tax credit is also $6,496 - making the vehicle free.

To meet the requirements are low emission and have seat belts, lights, turn signals and most safety items that are on a car. They travel 25mph and are street legal.

By buying green cars, we safe our future, environment and our children

In this five-part series, the National Post looks at unexpected ways to help the environment. Read part one here and part two here. Today, in the third instalment, the problem with public transit.

When the Toronto Transit Commission announced in November it would hike fares a 25¢ in the new year — a roughly 10% increase — it blamed the usual suspects: rising costs of fuel and wages.

The system, said TTC chairman Adam Giambrone, faced a $100-million shortfall in next year's operating budget.

When the bad news broke, the Torontoist.com, compared the inflation of the TTC's 21 fare hikes in the past 30 years against the price of gasoline and against the inflation rate.

Read a transcript of the chat with Kevin Libin about the future of transit

Consistently, the analysis found, TTC fares had risen faster than inflation, and far faster than the price of gas. Between 1980 and 2010, the cash fare, adjusted for inflation, soared more than 80% and token prices are up 50%. The price of a litre of unleaded gas? Up about 30%, without inflation. As for wage increases, Statistics Canada reported last year that the median full-time, full- year salary of average Canadians has hardly increased at all since 1980.

Although it is charging more than ever, getting heftier federal, provincial and municipal subsidies than at any time in its history, although fuelling a car is pricier; and though its customer base has never been larger or keener to reduce its carbon footprint, the TTC, the largest system in the country, is struggling as much as ever to stem its losses. If this is the future of public transit, it does not look bright.

As other major systems across the continent strain in similar circumstances, the strategy of public transit system boosters has been to promote the service as an environmental necessity. In the name of Mother Nature, North American transit systems have received billions in subsidies in recent years – even though they were never developed for environmental purposes in the first place.

If the goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, air pollution and gas consumption, and maximize the environmental impact of sustainability spending, we may be better off without publicly funding transit at all.

"Subsidized transit is not sustainable by definition," says Wendell Cox, a transport policy consultant in St. Louis, and former L.A. County Transportation commissioner. "The potential of public transit has been so overblown it's almost scandalous."

It's not that environmentally minded transit promoters are being dishonest when they argue that city buses are more efficient than private cars: It's that they're talking about a fictional world where far more people ride buses. Mass transit vehicles use up roughly the same energy whether they are full or empty, and for much of the time, they're more empty than full.

For the bulk of the day, and on quieter routes, the average city bus usually undoes whatever efficiencies are gained during the few hours a day, on the few routes, where transit is at its peak.

Last year, policy analyst Randal O'Toole ran the numbers for the CATO Institute, where he is a senior fellow, comparing mass transit vehicles to private vehicles, ranking each based on how much energy they consume and how much CO2 they emit. The average motorized city bus, he reports, burns 27% more energy per mile than a private car and emits 31% more pounds of CO2. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics confirms that the average city bus requires 20% more energy per passenger than the average car.

"Unfortunately, right now the state of the art is that you're generally better off with private automobiles when you're talking about energy utilization. About the only way that transit can be competitive for energy or for environmental quality is if the transit lines gets an incredible amount of use, far higher than is now normally the case," says Tom Rubin, a transit policy consultant in California, and former chief financial officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But crowded systems are a turn-off for riders, he says, so more passengers means even more buses and rail cars. "It's almost impossible to make transit more attractive without spending a huge amount of money."

The bus may be the most inefficient part of any major city's transit network, but they're the most vital part. Wider use of subways and light rail relies utterly on a feeder system of buses, says Michael Roschlau, president of the Canadian Urban Transit Association. "You can't just run [Calgary's] C-Train by itself and expect everyone to drive to the stations," he says. "Same thing for the subway in Toronto or Skytrain in Vancouver."

Without buses to carry them from their neighbourhood to the train stations, even fewer citizens would ride the trains, making trains, in turn, less efficient per passenger. Already, when trains, subways and streetcars are combined, the average public transit system is still no more efficient that private cars, according to the CATO study. All transit together does emit less CO2 than passenger cars carrying the same number of people the same distance (about 13% less) but even that gap is disappearing — fast.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Data Book shows that while transit's energy efficiency has worsened in recent decades — transit buses today consume 4,315 BTUs per passenger mile, or about 50% more energy than in 1980 — the trend in cars has been the opposite direction: Today's cars are already nearly 20% more efficient than they were 25 years ago, down from 4,348 BTUs per passenger mile in 1980 to 3,514 in 2007.

The environmental case for public transit is falling just as fast, now that hybrid cars are achieving mass market status, with 65 models set to hit North American roads next year, Chevrolet planning to launch its electric Volt by 2011 and manufacturers rolling out super-high efficiency vehicles. In the next few years especially, the average energy consumption of passenger vehicles, and their emission levels, will only improve, with projections by the International Council on Clean Transportation showing the average auto could beat all public transit modes for efficiency and CO2 within the next five years.

"At this point, a Toyota Prius is less greenhouse-intensive than New York City Transit," Mr. Cox says. "Whatever advantage that transit has at the moment is going away very quickly."

Once eco-conscious urbanites realize the bus is worse for the planet than cars, they'll have little reason to keep riding, making transit's comparative per-passenger environmental footprint look even worse. And while transit system operators talk of "greening" their fleet, the fact is they face substantial limits. Whatever green gains transit can make, automobiles can probably do better, Mr. Rubin says.

When the federal government, the B.C. government and BC Transit revealed plans to run 20 hydrogen-powered buses in Whistler, B.C., in February for the Olympics, even the hard-green David Suzuki Foundation balked at the preposterous $2-million-per-bus price tag — four times the price of a standard diesel — arguing that the money would have been better spent on traditional transit initiatives, which "are on life support as far as the financial needs go," Ian Bruce, the group's climate-change campaigner, said.

He's surely right about the pointlessness of what will amount to a four-year, $90-million showpiece of technology not even remotely realistic for actual, financially strapped public transit systems.

And more money for diesel-powered buses may be hardly more worthwhile: The fact is that despite best efforts of transit planners and funding governments, and surveys showing a public keen on environmentalism, most commuters simply will not, or cannot, ride.

Last year's census data confirmed that the vast majority of Canadians have little use for transit. Just 216,000 more people rode at least once than did in 2001, a half-a-percentage increase, but that's actually a decrease relative to the 5.4% population growth over the same period. At the same time, Statistics Canada shows that operating costs for Canadian transit system has ballooned, up 30% from $3.7-billion in 2003 to $4.8-billion in 2007. In the United States, public transit's market share for travel has fallen by a third since 1980, from 1.5% to 1% in 2005. If anything were to get people out of their cars to stand at a bus stop, it would be the severe pain of soaring gas prices. But even as fuel in the United States. approached the unseen price of $4 a gallon in 2008, public transit ridership rose a mere 3.3%.

Transit boosters insist that we must go further, and redesign our cities to support transit systems. "Our cities continue to approve the suburban sorts of development that are very difficult to serve using public transit," Stephen Hazell, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, told reporters upon release of last year's disappointing ridership data. But the thousands of delivery trucks, taxi drivers, emergency vehicles, service trucks, car-bound workers and buses mean even high-density cities will keep needing highways, ring roads, bridges and flyovers. Meanwhile the massive cost of overhauling cities is just more billions to address an automobile environmental problem that is already on the way to resolving itself — money that might be better, and more effectively deployed toward other earth-friendly measures, such as reducing traffic congestion.

A congestion charge toll implemented in Stockholm in 2007, for instance, reduced CO2 emissions in that city by roughly 16% last year, cut traffic by 18%, and, because it exempts low-emissions vehicles, led to a tripling of purchases of so-called green cars. Best of all, it sustains itself.

More roads, and more efficient roads, still won't address public transit's original, non-environmental purpose: providing mobility for citizens who lack their own. But where public transit is absent, or impractical, solutions for the small minority totally lacking other means have readily sprung up. Ridesharing applications for smart phones — users enter their location and desired destination and a cost-conscious carpooler responds — are already in wide use, Mr. Rubin says. Self-sustaining, small-scale private jitney systems have successfully operated for years in Atlantic City and Puerto Rico (all North America's early public transit systems were privately operated until they were nationalized). And with billions freed up from public transit funds, it appears entirely feasible to simply offer subsidized Prius taxis, or even car subsidies, to the small portion of the public entirely reliant on public mobility. A study last year by HDR Decision Economics, commissioned by the Canadian Urban Transit Association, found that Canada's public systems will need $78-billion more in infrastructure spending and $3.6-billion in annual subsidies to reach optimum capacity. For that kind of money, Canadian governments could, if they wanted, hand out $16,000 car or taxi allowances to every single Canadian who rides transit even casually, and still have $50- billion left over at the end of the decade. That plan wouldn't please the public unions and other transit-reliant lobbies pressing for more green-related transit funding. But it would relieve Canadians from having to perpetually prop up a system that's increasingly unsustainable — financially and environmentally.

The commission said the municipality is still working on other related programs to help buyers offset the higher purchase costs of new energy vehicles

Shanghai, December 11 (Gasgoo.com) This week Shanghai's economic planning body has denied earlier media reports that the city was trying to boost sales of cleaner energy cars by offering free license plates to go with these vehicles, CCTV.com said.

The Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission said the plan is a good idea but would be very difficult to implement. The planner claimed it has studied the possibility of free license plates for new energy cars, but fears the program would cause more problems then it would solve.

At present, auto consumers in Shanghai can only get their vehicles registered through car plate auctions. The average minimum cost for a car plate stands at 30,000 yuan ($4,390).

The commission said the municipality is still working on other related programs to help buyers offset the higher purchase costs of new energy vehicles. Extra subsidies may be offered to buyers of eco-friendly vehicles which consume less energy.

The city will help its public transportation sector offset some battery costs for running electric buses. A battery-electric-bus is priced about 2 million yuan. Shanghai has set up an e-bus battery renting firm, due to serve the 2010 World Expo first.

The Wall Street Journal that he thought the car drove "rough," with "squishy" handling, and that it needed more refinement

BYD Co., the Chinese auto maker part-owned by one of Warren Buffett's companies, is likely to choose the Los Angeles area as the lead market for the electric car it plans to start selling in the U.S. late next year, a senior executive said.

BYD is also leaning toward choosing the West Coast metropolis as home to its U.S. headquarters for the auto business, Henry Li, a BYD senior director in charge of its auto business outside China, said in an interview Wednesday. Mr. Li said an official decision has not been made, but the Los Angeles area is "at the top of the list" and is likely to be chosen. The Los Angeles area is attractive because electric cars are "most suitable for densely populated areas with lots of air pollution problems," and because the region is one of the largest and wealthiest car markets and is known to be the leader in adopting new technologies, the executive said.

California is shaping up as a central battleground for electric vehicle launches next year. General Motors Co. said earlier this month it will focus on California for the Volt, a heavily electrified, plug-in hybrid car. Coda Automotive, a California-based start-up, is also targeting southern California for the planned launch by late next year of a $40,000-plus all-electric battery compact sedan, to be built in China using Chinese lithium-ion battery technology. Japan's Nissan MotorCo. is also putting the finishing touches on plans for the launch of its all-electric Leaf model in the U.S. and Japan by end-2010, although it hasn't said yet where it will focus initially.

BYD's U.S. launch is being watched in the industry as a test of the global ambitions of China's auto sector to use electric-vehicle technology to close the distance with more established car makers. It has said that it plans to sell the all-electric, battery-powered e6 model for slightly more than $40,000 – competitive with some bigger rivals. The company wants to build a beachhead on the West Coast to tap American consumers' growing appetite for fuel-efficient cars much like Japanese auto makers did decades ago.

Mr. Li said that to pick the lead market for the five-seat e6, BYD has spent the past couple of years talking to different local governments to discern their attitudes toward clean-energy vehicles, and what kinds of incentives or other support they might offer for the industry.

BYD plans initially to make the e6 available only to fleet customers in the U.S., like utilities, and will sell it directly to them instead of using dealerships, "most likely through some type of lease program," Mr. Li said. BYD plans to develop a dealer network later, as it makes more products available in the U.S.

BYD plans to later expand e6 sales north to San Francisco and eventually to further cities like Seattle, Chicago, New York and Boston, Mr. Li said, without specifying a timetable. "Any of those markets is our potential market," he said, adding that BYD also wants to expand its product offerings to include other new-energy cars as well as gasoline-fueled cars.

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said in an interview in August that the company wants to use the e6, one of its most advanced cars, to build its brand name in the U.S. He said the company will target government agencies, utilities and "maybe some celebrities" as potential customers. BYD hopes to enter Europe with a similar strategy in 2011 or later.

The Chinese company's ambitions face challenges. It is still awaiting approval from China's government to begin selling the e6 in its home market. And it remains unseen whether the e6 will satisfy finicky U.S. customers.

The technology chief of one global auto maker who recently drove an e6 told The Wall Street Journal that he thought the car drove "rough," with "squishy" handling, and that it needed more refinement.

Mr. Li said any early evaluation of the e6's performance is meaningless since it would be based on test drives of an early prototype of the car. "Obviously we're improving the car everyday," he said.

he said would start with the construction of a lithium carbonate factory and end with the production of electric cars

Bolivian President Evo Morales claimed victory in elections yesterday following a pledge to extend his socialist “revolution” and boost payouts to the poor and elderly in the natural gas-rich nation.

Morales, a former farmer and union leader who heads the Movement Toward Socialism party, had 63 percent support, according to exit polls broadcast by television station Red Uno. Former Governor Manfred Reyes Villa had 27 percent. Official results weren’t yet available.

“The people, with their participation, showed once again that it’s possible to change Bolivia,” Morales, 50, told supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace in La Paz last night. “We have the responsibility to deepen and accelerate this process of change.”

As Bolivia’s first leader to win consecutive re-election since 1964, Morales said he will use his five-year term to expand state control over the country’s natural resources and distribute revenue from state-controlled businesses to the poor. He plans to rewrite about 100 laws, including mining and energy codes, as his party appeared headed for its first-ever majority in both houses of Congress.

About 5.2 million voters were eligible to take part in the vote, the national electoral court said.

‘Best Moment Ever’

“Brother Evo Morales is working for the poorest people, for the people that are fighting for their survival,” street vendor Julio Fernandez, 47, said after casting his vote in the city of El Alto, just outside La Paz.

The vote took place almost 11 months after Morales won approval in a nationwide referendum for a new constitution abolishing a ban on consecutive re-election. He said he won’t run again in 2015.

Morales said last night that his party, known as MAS, won a two-thirds majority in Congress. That will allow him to make key appointments without consulting the opposition, said Erasto Almeida, a Latin America analyst at the Eurasia Group in New York.

“This will give Morales more freedom to mold Bolivia’s legal apparatus and institutions according to his nationalist and state-centric views, given that the new Congress will vote on a number of bills necessary to implement Bolivia’s new constitution,” Almeida wrote in a Dec. 4 report.

Gas Reserves

Reyes Villa, 54, said during the campaign that the Morales government didn’t seek out new markets for exports like natural gas and metals, costing the country $2 billion annually in lost revenue. Bolivia has the second-largest natural gas reserves on the continent, after Venezuela.

“It’s been a hard battle against lies, against political persecution,” Reyes Villa said, speaking from the eastern Santa Cruz province. “We’re going to keep fighting for democracy, for the country and for everyone counting on us.”

The number of Bolivians living in poverty rose 0.5 percentage point to 60.1 percent in 2007 from 2005, the year before Morales took office, according to the National Statistics Institute. The government agency hasn’t published data for the past two years.

Bolivia’s projected economic growth of 2.8 percent this year is the most of 32 Western hemisphere nations tracked by the International Monetary Fund in its October World Economic Outlook. The Washington-based lender forecasts contractions of 0.7 percent in Brazil and 7.3 percent in Mexico, Latin America’s two biggest economies.

Morales said he plans to use revenue from new state businesses to increase one of his largest stipend programs, which targets low-income Bolivians over the age of 60. He said he may increase the stipends to 7,764 bolivianos ($1,098) per year from 1,800 bolivianos.

Morales also promised his supporters new petrochemical plants and a plan to process the country’s lithium reserves, which he said would start with the construction of a lithium carbonate factory and end with the production of electric cars.

Bolivia’s salt flats contain about half the world’s known 11 million metric tons of lithium reserves, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report

The early-evening rides sell out first, operators said, and it was nice Saturday, with the lights set against the glow of the sunset and the Boardwal

holiday light train tickets are selling like hot cakes, operators said Saturday, as they ushered visitors into seven brightly decorated train cars lined up beside the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

Saturday was the first trip of the holiday season for the Santa Cruz Holiday Lights Train and Santa's Kingdom, a train ride and arcade partnership between Felton-based Roaring Camp Railroad's Santa Cruz Big Trees & Pacific Railway Co. and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

Holiday operation include the second year of a holiday season train ride in Felton featuring decorated trees and hot cider.

The diesel-electric train does a loop from the Main Beach amusement park to Pogonip and back, rumbling along at about five mph and spanning a little more than an hour, said John Bush, manager of the Roaring Camp trains operations. The ride comes with Christmas carols, cider and lots of scenery and cheer.

"The train is absolutely beautiful," said Lyn Henry of Capitola, who was picking up tickets inside the park's Neptune's Kingdom, which has been transformed into "Santa's Kingdom" for a few weeks.

"I wanted to try this because I want to sing Christmas carols," she added, smiling.

Henry was with her good friend John Wendt and his son, Nicholas, age 6, who was wide-eyed with excitement, though maybe a tad more keen for a game of laser tag that came along with the train tickets.

Business is so good that it is the first

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year in the train ride's 10-year history that they have offered three trips on the first evening, Business Development Director Paul Nakamoto said. Groups from as far away as Taiwan have bought tickets this year, he said.

Ticket sales are up 40 percent over last year and they needed to add an extra train this year in Felton, for the second year of the Holiday Tree Walk which takes visitors through decorated trees surrounding Roaring Camp.

But it was the Holiday Lights Train which drew Kelly Austin of Aptos and her 10-year-old daughter, Sarah, and her friend, 10-year-old Matthew Koda of La Selva Beach.

"I'm a local and I've never been on it so it's very exciting," Austin said. "It's a Santa Cruz tradition and we're finally doing it."

Several people came up as the train was getting ready to roll, and were told, sorry, the 350 seats were sold out.

The early-evening rides sell out first, operators said, and it was nice Saturday, with the lights set against the glow of the sunset and the Boardwalk rides.

Bush, the train manager, said the first day is always a scramble, but that he hopes that their need to add an extra train for the Christmas walk "bodes well for everyone."

We have entered into a technical collaboration with Bangalore-based Reva Electric Car Company to roll out electric variant of our bestselling small ca

General Motors India will expand its pan-India dealership network from 195 at present to almost 250 by the end of March 2010.

We are growing by 10 per cent and hope to keep the momentum going by increasing the network of dealerships and service centres,” General Motors director & vice president (corporate affairs) P Balendran said at a conference call here.

Replying to a query, he said 80 per cent of the Indian four-wheeler market was dominated by small cars. “We have entered into a technical collaboration with Bangalore-based Reva Electric Car Company to roll out electric variant of our bestselling small car, Chevrolet Spark,” he said. The car is likely to hit the market by the middle of next fiscal. The company was also developing CNG and bio-diesel versions of its existing cars for half-million dollar, he added.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn described it as being "a compact, high-performance, four-seat luxury Infiniti with zero emissions

Over the past decade, Infiniti has been carefully forging a performance image itself, developing cars with class leading powertrains and dynamics.

With the company recently announcing plans for an electric vehicle--something commonly seen as environmentally friendly and completely lacking in the performance department--that carefully formed image could be in jeopardy.

Infiniti fans shouldn’t be worried as the new electric car will lend itself perfectly to the company’s performance image, according to Ben Poore, Infiniti North American sales boss.

"You can really turn up the performance of those things," explained Poore. "The model will fit perfectly with the performance standards that we've set for the brand. It's going to be a very cool vehicle."

Not much is known about the car but it will be a global model, which means it will be coming to North American showrooms. When it was first announced, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn described it as being "a compact, high-performance, four-seat luxury Infiniti with zero emissions."

A concept version is already being developed, with an eye toward the production vehicle's design goals described by Ghosn.

No word on any release date but parent company Nissan will have its first electric vehicle, the Leaf, on sale late next year so it’s conceivable that Infiniti’s car will come in 2011.

A little more than six of 10 said that buying energy-efficient appliances, using recycled paper products and car pooling help a lot

Sometimes it's easier to think green than be green.

A survey released Tuesday suggests people have largely embraced recycling bottles and cans, and are inclined to turn down thermostats to save energy. But it also indicated that some paths toward a greener Earth aren't as easily taken — or turned into action.

The telephone poll, conducted for The Associated Press and NBC Universal, tries to gauge attitudes about the environment. It found that 60 percent of those surveyed felt either a "great deal" or "a lot" of personal responsibility to protect the environment, while 37 percent rarely, if ever, even thought about the impact of their actions on the Earth's health.

Nearly eight of 10 people, who were concerned about environmental protection, said they believe their actions are helping to protect the environment.

The survey found that nearly seven in 10 people believe recycling bottles and cans would help the environment a lot. The same number said that about adding energy-saving insulation to their homes.

A little more than six of 10 said that buying energy-efficient appliances, using recycled paper products and car pooling help a lot. A little more than half said it would make a lot of difference to turn down the thermostat, reuse water bottles and take your own reusable bag when grocery shopping.

While many of the respondents — a cross section of adults from across the country — said these actions would help the environment "a great deal," or at least "a lot," when asked about some specific actions, the gap widened between what they believe to be important and what they, themselves, have any intention of doing.

In some cases, the inability to turn their green priorities into action reflected geography or economics.

Take the matter of car pooling, or using mass transit. More than six in 10 people said they thought it would help the environment. Yet only three in 10 said they were very likely to do it, and four in 10 said they were not at all likely to car pool or take mass transit.

A third of those surveyed lived in rural areas where mass transit was generally not readily available and where car pooling would be less likely.

Yet, only 44 percent of urbanites and 32 percent of people living in the suburbs also said they were very likely to use mass transit or car pool.

Janice Meehl, 54, a fourth-grade teacher in the town of North East, Pa., and one of the participants in the survey, said she fervently recycles bottles and cans, keeps the thermostat down and years ago added insulation to her all-electric home, cutting her energy bill in half. It saves money but also "it's doing the right thing for the environment. They go hand in hand," she said in a follow-up interview.

While she commutes 70 miles round-trip to work each day, she says mass transit or car pooling "is not an option. If it were, would I use it? Probably."

Like Meehl, seven in 10 people surveyed said they thought adding energy-saving insulation in their homes would be a good idea for the environment. But only half said they were very likely to do it and one in five respondents, said they were highly unlikely to add insulation. In some cases, respondents said the structure of their house prevents more insulation to be added easily.

About 45 percent of those surveyed embraced the idea of gas-electric hybrid cars, but only one in five said they were very likely to buy such a vehicle, and half said they were "not at all likely" to buy one.

"They're too expensive right now," said Vaughan Oliver, 65, of Mount Vernon, Ky., in a follow-up interview. "You would have to have one for years and years and years to make it feasible to pay for itself." Oliver, interviewed as he drove his Jeep Cherokee down Interstate 65 south of Lexington, said he might consider a hybrid "in another 10 years" when he says he'll be more secure that they will not cause him a problem.

Today, gas-electric hybrids can carry a $4,000 to $7,000-or-more price premium over similar gasoline-powered vehicles.

The poll suggested in a number of other areas people were very likely to act to help the environment:

_72 percent were very likely to recycle cans and bottles;

_63 percent were very likely to turn down thermostats;

_62 percent were very likely to buy energy-efficient appliances;

_59 percent were very likely to use cold water for clothes washing;

_59 percent were very likely to buy recycled paper products.

More than half said it would help the environment if people brought their own shopping bags to stores, and 46 percent said they were very likely to do so, while 25 percent ruled it out.

NBC Universal's sponsorship of the poll was related to their "Green is Universal" week of programming about environmental issues.

The poll was conducted Nov. 5-9 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,006 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points

The outage also briefly plunged the whole of neighbouring Paraguay into darkness

Candles and car headlights were the only illumination in Brazil's two biggest cities as a huge power cut brought chaos.

Tens of millions of people in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo and cities in at least four other states were plunged into darkness.

Traffic ground to a near standstill.

Trapped subway passengers had to make their way along the tracks to the next station to escape.

Rio's international airport has its own emergency generators.

Flights were still coming and going but travellers were delayed as cabbies refused to drive through crime-ridden areas in the dark.

For residents the street was a more comfortable place to spend the evening than sweltering at home.

[Ricardo de Sousa, Resident of Rio de Janeiro]:
"It's too hot at home. I can't stay inside. It's so hot that I have to stay out here on the street riding my bike until it gets better."

The power began to come back on after three hours.

The outage also briefly plunged the whole of neighbouring Paraguay into darkness,

It's being blamed on transmission problems from a huge dam that supplies hydro-electric power to both nations.

Chandra claims that governments could garner greater environmental benefits by purchasing carbon offsets (currently priced between $3 and $40 per tonn

Amarish Chandra, a professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business and co-author of the study said, “If the intention of rebate programs is to replace gas guzzlers with hybrids, they are failing.”

He goes on to say that large vehicle sales have risen steadily since the introduction of hybrid rebates. The study also finds that the majority of consumers who purchase hybrids were not motivated to do so by government rebates.

“People are choosing hybrids over similarly priced small- and medium-sized conventional cars, which are not far behind hybrids for fuel efficiency and emissions,” says Chandra. “The reductions in carbon emissions are therefore not great.”

Hybrid rebate programs are currently offered by the governments of the U.S. and 13 states, including Washington, Oregon, Illinois and Colorado, and five Canadian provinces, including B.C., Ontario, Quebec, PEI and Manitoba. The Canadian government offered hybrid rebates during 2007-2008.

“Our estimates indicate that two-thirds of people who buy hybrids were going to buy them anyway,” said Chandra. “So for the majority, rebates are not changing behavior - they are subsidizing planned purchases.”

“When B.C.’s rebate jumped from $1,000 to $2,000 in 2005, the actual cost of reducing carbon emissions more than doubled,” he says, noting that Ontario recently increased its rebate to a maximum of $10,000 per hybrid vehicle. In the U.S. hybrid rebates can range from $900 up to $3,400 but some models no longer qualify, such as the Toyota and Honda hybrids. Apparently, the inefficiency of rebate programs rises disproportionately when governments increase rebate levels.

The study finds that Canadian provinces that offer rebates have spent an average of $195 per tonne of carbon saved or, equivalently, $0.43 for every litre of gasoline that a vehicle consumes over its 15 year average life expectancy.

But this isn’t enough. Chandra claims that governments could garner greater environmental benefits by purchasing carbon offsets (currently priced between $3 and $40 per tonne on carbon markets) or investing in green jobs and technologies. However, carbon offsets are a murky area, and the U.S. government has currently passed a cap and trade policy which I fondly call “crap and raid”.

While hybrid rebates help governments to appear environmentally progressive, Chandra suggests that some programs may serve as de facto “bailouts” for the North American auto industry.

“The criteria for Ontario’s recent rebate increase seem designed to benefit domestic manufacturers, especially General Motors,” Chandra says. “The biggest rebates will be given to purchasers of the Chevy Volt, rather than other hybrids like the Toyota Prius.”

In addition to Chandra, the other authors include Sumeet Gulati, assistant professor in UBC’s Dept. of Food and Resource Economics and Milind Kandlikar of UBC’s Liu Institute for Global Issues and Institute of Asian Research. Researchers used Canadian vehicle sales data over a 17-year period from 1989 to 2006. Results are believed to extend to the U.S. market, given the similarities between auto industries, in terms of vehicle buying patterns, pricing structures and car models.

People are now buying green SUVs, green homes, and clean water in carcinogenic-free types of plastic bottles

Going green is one of the hottest trends in Georgia these days. But one of the largest components of a green lifestyle is being overlooked.


People are now buying green SUVs, green homes, and clean water in carcinogenic-free types of plastic bottles. Governments and businesses are buying recycled copy paper, constructing green buildings, spending millions on green car fleets, and getting rid of styrofoam coffee cups in their kitchenettes.


But most, if not all, are buying food made in unsustainable ways from far off places. Georgia is caught up in concerning paradox. We produce plenty of food – the state is No. 1 for chicken production, and 6th for overall vegetable production.


Yet, of the $20 billion Georgians spend on food each year, $16 billion is going to out of state producers. Huge industrialized agricultural operations and global food distributions systems dominate the physical and political landscape of Georgia. 1,465 farms have disappeared in Georgia Since 2002.


The large-scale operations strain local economies, especially in rural Georgia, keeping state poverty rates near the nation’s lowest. And the poverty, in turn, perpetuates an unhealthy diet dependent on cheap, processed food.


We’re not talking about changing America’s food system overnight. And of course some people will always prefer McDonald’s over Whole Foods – that’s just the reality.


But we do know that there are a lot of people who like to know where there food came from, who believe in their community, and who want to protect their own bodies and the land from harmful chemicals.


The economic benefits of shopping locally are huge. We know that when you spend $100 at a typical chain grocery store, about $125 makes it into the local economy. When you spend $100 at a farmers’ market, $175 makes it into the local economy.


There are environmental reasons to eat from nearby farms, too.


In Georgia, agriculture is the number one source of run-off water pollution. Globally, agriculture accounts for 33 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional agriculture relies on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, which are all made with fossil fuels. And the process to make them is also very energy intensive.


If every U.S. citizen ate one local meal a week, America’s oil consumption would be reduced by 1.1million barrels of oil per week.


It’d be great if everybody ate from a nearby farm. In fact, a strong contingent of urbanites are so into the good food movement that they beat farmers’ to the farmers markets.


But the harsh reality is that there is much more demand than supply. As a state, we are far behind our neighbors when it comes to the amount of land that’s farmed organically. Here, it’s less than 1 percent.


Consumers and chefs are just dying to get their hands on local and organic food. Increasing demand is our biggest hurdle now. The solution is that we must grow more growers, and convert those who farm in ways that are not sustainable.


The key is that we must move Georgia from a commodity-based system to a community-based system, and you do simply that by starting with the food on your plate.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is behind the development of the plan

Nine cities and towns in the UK are to have charging points for electric and hybrid fuelled vehicles under an £11m development plan.

Birmingham, Coventry, Glasgow, London, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Newcastle and Sunderland will be the first to benefit from the scheme.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is behind the development of the plan.

It will eventually go national with the aim of creating a compatible network of recharging points, a spokesman said.

The new plug-in facilities and the attitudes of users to the network will be monitored to assess location of sites and costs of charging.

A number of trials are already under way across the UK with the largest involving 340 vehicles some of which are totally powered by electricity and others with carbon fuel engines charging on-board batteries.

Most journeys in cities and larger towns are about 40 miles on average and the government believes electric cars are ideal.

The aim is to have 50,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2015 but present technology limits even the most advanced units to 150 miles from a two-hour electric charge.

The aim of ETI is to develop a self-sustaining market through offering incentives to drivers.

Developing mass market

Their scheme is called the Joined-Cities Plan and was unveiled at Low Carbon Vehicle Show at the Millbrook vehicle testing ground in Bedfordshire.

ETI chief executive David Clarke said: "Enabling plug-in vehicles to compete effectively in a market alongside petrol and diesel vehicles with their extensive infrastructure is a challenge.

"These plug-in vehicles are currently unknown to most consumers, who will want to know if they will be versatile, will they be affordable and will they be as easy to refuel/recharge.

"Through the Joined-Cities Plan we will help to enhance the versatility and ease of recharging.

"Other aspects of the ETI project will determine what it will take to reach a self-sustaining mass market."

London mayor Boris Johnson, who was at the show, said: "Moving to using electric vehicles which emit zero pollution will have a major impact on cutting carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing noise pollution.

"I want to make it much easier to go electric which is why in London we are planning to roll out 25,000 charging points.

"So I'm delighted that the capital is part of the joined cities network helping to speed up the electric revolution across the country."

aterham is buying in a hybrid drivetrain from another manufacturer, which it can fit to its existing engines

Caterham has begun development of hybrid and electric powertrains for its cars, and will unveil a prototype by the end of this year.

Speaking at the Tokyo show, where the firm is one of only three foreign manufacturers exhibiting, Caterham boss Ansar Ali said that the EV programme was live, and would begin with a motorsport application.

“We’re looking first and foremost at motorsport, which we see as a testbed for the technology,”he said.

Caterham is buying in a hybrid drivetrain from another manufacturer, which it can fit to its existing engines. The electric drivetrain is also supplied from an external source, although Ali would not reveal the origin of either system.

The firm wants to start a one-make race series in 2011 using the electric/hybrid car, and it will use the findings from the competition to develop a road car for around 2012.

“We’ve been told by our suppliers that the Caterham layout is good for an electric car – there’s a lot of space under the bonnet,” said Ali. He also revealed that an electric Seven shouldn’t suffer any weight penalty, as the system under consideration should weigh the same as a petrol engine, gearbox and rear axle, and that its performance should be equal to any other Caterham.

Ali also admitted that Caterham is unsure whether or not an alternatively-powered Caterham would be a success. “We don’t know if our customer base will be receptive, but by 2012 things may have changed.”

Leno suggested the idea on his first-ever 10 p.m. show, explaining that he’d spent the off-air summer months going to comedy clubs, checking out new t

It’s hard not to root for the underdog, and Jay Leno - despite his massive salary, his fleet of cars, his ownership of five prime hours of network TV - is the underdog. Knocked prematurely off his top-rated “Tonight Show’’ perch. Mocked for being a nice guy who appeals to Middle America. And now, hated by Hollywood for dominating prime time real estate, and pilloried for drawing the same number of viewers in his 10 p.m. slot as he routinely drew at 11:30.

I like Jay Leno, fundamentally. I don’t want his network career to end in failure. I don’t really need another cop or medical show at 10. And so I want “The Jay Leno Show’’ to go on.

Just better.

So far, alas, “The Jay Leno Show’’ has been a disappointment, too somnambulant for prime time. Leno is low-energy in his monologues, listless in his interviewing chair, a little bit bored reading the headlines, overwhelmed by his vast set. His booking agents are equally lax, bringing on a series of veteran comic guests that make his show seem like an ’80s and ’90s reunion. His “Ten @ Ten’’ segments, in which he quizzes celebrities in remote locations, seem to go on for hours. His “Green Car Challenge’’ racing segments are . . . circular.

Leno seems to know this. Recently, he has mocked his own low ratings. Arsenio Hall led an amusing romp through Compton, Calif., in which he asked black people what would make them watch the show. (Add jerking dancers, one of them explained, and in a brief clip, Leno obliged.) Last week, Leno introduced a faux TV show called “Cops and Doctors,’’ complete with “Law & Order’’ dum-DOOM sound effects, to soothe network executives who wanted more excitement at 10 p.m.

Those have been among the best segments of his show; self-awareness is useful for daily TV. But Leno could use his time slot to do something more distinctive and enduring. He could be a comedy curator.

Leno suggested the idea on his first-ever 10 p.m. show, explaining that he’d spent the off-air summer months going to comedy clubs, checking out new talent. He has collected a stable of lesser-known comics, but he generally uses them in filmed sketches that feel like second-rate “Daily Show’’ knock-offs. When comedian Liz Feldman taught senior citizens to use Twitter earlier this month, no one in the room had good material.

Leno should have just given Feldman the floor and let her spin her stand-up routine. He should do that every night, expand his talent pool, and make prime-time stand-up comedy a deliberate, stated mission of his show. Bring in celebrities, sure, if they have something new to say or something timely to promote. But Dana Carvey gave a plug for a hair salon last week - and “earned’’ it in part by doing his George H.W. Bush impression. It made Leno look irrelevant.

There was one moment in the Carvey interview, though, that gave insight into what Leno’s show could be.

Leno reminisced about judging a comedy competition in San Francisco in the late 1970s, then showed a clip of ’70s-era Carvey, fresh-faced and young, with Leif Garrett hair. Imagine what comics, with what hairstyles, are toiling in bars in different corners of the country. They could use a break and a prime-time forum. Leno could use a legacy.

And “The Jay Leno Show’’ could use a purpose, beyond being a way for Jay the car enthusiast to simply spin his wheels

Organiser Greenpower has just announced the top teams who have qualified for the national finals

The highlight of the electric car racing calendar will once again be hosted at the Goodwood Motor Circuit on Sunday when Seaford College will be hoping to regain the championship title.

Seaford College won the coveted title two years ago and will be keen to make it a double.

Organiser Greenpower has just announced the top teams who have qualified for the national finals. This signifies the culmination of a very busy race season where more than 150 teams have competed at the ten qualifying heats held around the UK earlier this year.The top 94 teams, consisting of students from 11 years upwards, will be showcasing their design and engineering expertise when their single-seater cars take to the track at Goodwood.

Each vehicle is powered by the same 24-volt electric motor and two 12-volt batteries around which the teams have designed a car capable of competing in a four-hour endurance race, complying with Greenpower's specifications.

There is sure to be plenty of action on the track during the two races which will take place.

The first race is the Formula 24+ class for teams aged over 16 which will take place over a fast-paced 90-minute sprint.

Then at 1pm the Earl of March, patron of Greenpower, and MP Nick Herbert will be dropping the flag for the start of the Formula 24 endurance.

It will mark the start of much frenzied activity, not only on the track, but also in the pits with frequent driver and battery changes to be factored into the race plan.

It is now established in scientific literature that recent years rises in atmospheric CO2 concentration have not been matched by rises in temperature

The Association of British Drivers has responded to a report from the government’s Climate Change Committee, who have suggested the introduction of road pricing with drivers paying up to £1.50 per mile to combat ‘global warming.’

ABD Environment Spokesman Paul Biggs commented: “The UK’s unilateral Climate Change Act (2008) sets targets for reducing the UK’s tiny 2% contribution to global man-made CO2 emissions, with no plan for how they might be achieved. Indeed, the act has been criticised in a peer reviewed publication as “on course to fail.” The Climate Change Committee, which was set up to give advice on how targets might be met, is loaded with New Labour cronies and ‘Green Alliance’ members, so driver bashing in the false name of climate control comes as no surprise.”

Biggs continues: “It is now established in scientific literature that recent years rises in atmospheric CO2 concentration have not been matched by rises in temperature, adding yet more weight to the significant body of scientific opinion that believes factors other than CO2 drive climate change. The missing 0.2C rise in global temperatures over the past decade was not predicted by the computer models on which the climate scare is based.”

It is interesting that this call comes shortly after the launch of a £6 million government commercial aimed at scaring families on an impending climate disaster. Apparently such extreme alarmism is needed because the public have not been convinced by sexed-up documents from lobby groups.

It is well known that the government welcomed road pricing in response to proposals from the EU, which wants it as a means of paying for its Galileo satellite extravaganza. As an excuse for road pricing, that might not go down too well with voters, though.

Unfortunately, it seems that the Conservatives have also been looking favourably at road pricing. While making a driver-friendly speech at the party conference last week, shadow transport spokesperson Theresa Villiers took a different line at a fringe meeting. She stated that her priorities included reducing carbon emissions and car use, and favoured road pricing initiatives.

The driving public knows it has already been taxed several times over for using a neglected road system, while their money is wasted on costly wind turbines, eco-towns and other green indulgences.

Surveys repeatedly show 3 out of 4 people oppose road pricing. Any politician thinking of adding to the public’s pain will put their party in the fast lane to electoral unpopularity”

"Who Killed The Electric Car"

Historically, the United States loves change. Through our perfection of mass production, agricultural shifts due to the cotton gin, and even our very rise as a world power, punctuated with our usage of the atomic bomb, the country has embraced new technology and new direction to help us climb up the world's ranks. President Barack Obama was elected, functionally, on a platform of change. The Republicans were painted as the party of the status quo, and the Democratic party was painted as the party that would lead us in a bold new direction that would fix our ills. However, once the rubber met the road, it became very obvious very quickly that we have little stomach for sweeping change anymore.

I recently saw the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car". The documentary functionally says that everyone: The state of California, the car companies, the federal government, the oil companies, etc., had a hand in ensuring that the electric car model EV1 was a failure. This seems to be the opposite of the attitude expected by the country that invented the light bulb. The question became "Why were all of these people so scared of an efficient electric car?" My hypothesis on the answer is that the amount of sweeping change that would occur because of the EV1 was not worth it to all parties involved.

Let's pretend for a moment that the EV1 was mass produced an offered in our current market. The vast majority of people do not travel a hundred miles in a single day, so unless you have an exceptionally long commute or are a professional driver of some sort (trucker, taxicab driver, etc.), the EV1 could service your needs without requiring any gasoline. I would like to repeat this statement for emphasis: For most practical usage that does not involve a road trip of some sort, you can effectively stop buying gas. I can't see the EV1 and cars like it not overtaking the market. Who wouldn't love that?

Oil companies, as an example, are the main answer. Whereas it is easy to dismiss their concerns as "big business", let's realistically think about this: How many Americans are employed by oil companies, either directly or indirectly? Could we really handle that many job losses due to a lack of demand for oil? I can only imagine how that would affect the Gulf of Mexico region and Alaska alone. As well, the movie bragged about how the EV1 required such little service – you just need to rotate the tires, and change the window wiper fluid. The difficulty here is that the standard internal combustion engine is far more inefficient than the EV1's engine… and entire industries have been built around the repair and maintenance of this inefficient engine. Now we've also put a large number of mechanics, car shops, etc. out of business. Let's not even begin to go into the "strategic partnerships" with other countries to provide us with the oil we "need".

Now, I do not want to say the electric car would plunge our country into chaos. We would adapt, just as we always do. When we began using robots on assembly lines rather than humans, massive jobs were lost but our country has managed to survive. However, I think it is obvious that we have little stomach for those "growing pains" anymore.

Let's apply this same reasoning to health care. Conservatives argue that any sort of public option would lead to a single payer health care system. I personally do not believe that a single payer system is problematic. We worry about government inefficiency, comparing the USPS to FedEx. However, the "alternatives" are very few in that scenario: FedEx and UPS. It is easy to maintain high levels of efficiency when you only have two other options. How many different health care insurance companies are there in the United States? I don't know the answer, but I know it is more than two. The administrative efficiencies of having a single place where all of the money comes and goes would be tremendous. This does not even begin to go into the power the government could have to lower prices since everyone would be negotiated together. However, as President Obama cited, this will never happen. We already have a system in place that utilizes private companies for insurance, and, as he says, it would be overwhelming to totally switch gears now. I would cite that it would not be "overwhelming", but it would indeed be a "revolution" – we would have to learn a new system, and entire industry would be gone, etc.. Does our country really have the stomach for that?

It is easy to be brave and move in "bold, new" directions when you are not on top. When your country is searching for the edge to surpass other countries, it is easy to take risks and reap the rewards. However, we have spent the last seventy-to-a-hundred years on top of the mountain, and it takes a lot more to move us now. Is this the best direction to move in? I have always been inclined to say that the cultural and technological advances we embrace can only help the nation move forward into prosperity. However, do you want to be the one telling that to the offshore driller that has found his skill set reduced to a totally unmarketable state?

Of course, there is always the chance that "the market" will always prevail no matter what. Coming this year (according to their website): The Aptera 2E, an "electric" car that gets the equivalent of 360 mpg. In early 2010 we will see the hybrid Aptera 2h, which will use have a tank of up to 5 gallons and a range of around 600 miles because of it. I personally think that, whenever it comes out, we can begin the countdown for the retirement of the internal combustion engine – we may still have hybrids, but I simply can't see a standard car surviving against that sort of competition - unless they greatly inflate the price. On the one hand, at a rumored cost of between $25,000 and $45,000, I'd give regular cars another twenty years or so. On the other hand, I didn't hear about the Aptera until I stumbled upon it in a web search. That doesn't exactly sound like a good start for marketing success (assuming I'm not VERY out of the loop in car technology, which may be the case)

The cost of building a net-zero energy home is now about 20 per cent more than building a conventional home

How well-positioned is your roof? It's a timely question for home and business owners because a roof outfitted with solar panels can generate enough clean electricity to provide power for your building and recharge your electric vehicles. And if it's located in Ontario, it can also turn a profit.

Energy self-sufficiency is not pie-in-the sky speculation. It is prevalent in Europe, specifically in Germany, and it seems to be moving closer to urban Canada with every passing month. But Montreal might have to take a back seat to Toronto on this one. More on that later.

For the moment, we'll go to the leafy suburb of Hudson, where the Alstonvale Net Zero Energy House is being built, as part of the federal government's EQuilbrium initiative to showcase carbon-neutral sustainable housing. Incorporated into the home's roof is a photovoltaic/thermal system that should generate about 8,700 kilowatts of energy annually, enough to meet the needs of a household of four as well as charge the family's low-speed electric car.

The home, which should be ready to receive its family this summer, will be monitored and its energy patterns scrutinized by Hydro-Québec, CMHC, Natural Resources Canada and Concordia University, said architect Sevag Pogharian, who discussed the home's attributes and challenges at the Plug-In Hybrid and Electric Vehicles conference in Montreal.

Meanwhile, in an industrial sector of Toronto, Solera Sustainable Energies Co. is preparing to install solar panels on the roof of client Toronto Electric. Those panels should generate sufficient energy to support a fleet of 35 small highway-capable electric vehicles each travelling about 20,000 kilometres a year for the next 25 years, Solera president Leonard Allen told the conference.

Buildings consume between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of all energy produced and are major contributors to human-induced global warming, said Solera who, like Pogharian, contends that roofs could be - and should be - power plants of green energy.

We shouldn't have to review the environmental sense of green energy; it's as clear as ice-melt. But quickly: every kilowatt of solar photovoltaic installed means that 17 tonnes of coal doesn't have to be burned and that 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide isn't being emitted into the atmosphere.

What is still subject to debate in some quarters, alas, is the economic sense of green energy and green buildings. That is still going on because mainstream economists don't yet factor in the true cost of carbon or clean water or other finite resources while the mantra of the Western world is economic growth and the consumerism that it implies.

Pogharian has given many presentations about the super-smart building in Hudson. He said he is always asked about the "payback period" for the home and the question: "How long will it take to cover the investment?" always comes from a man.

A man who, Pogharian figures, never calculated the payback period of his big flat-screen TV or his power boat, or keeping a mistress, the latter two items having "a pay-back time approaching infinity."

"We are just hardwired to overestimate the value of present pleasures and underestimate the odds of our future pains," he said.

Currently, the cost of building a net-zero energy home is now about 20 per cent more than building a conventional home, he said. Those "incremental" costs will be dropping fast as solar technologies become refined and production costs decrease.

One sure method of dropping the cost and payback time of structures like Pogharian's and Toronto Electric's is building them in Ontario.

If the Hudson home had been built in a Toronto suburb, it would be generating revenue as soon as the sun shone on it, under provisions of Ontario's Green Energy Act that came into effect last week.

Ontario is the first jurisdiction in North America to have a so-called feed-in-tariff which pays producers of green energy - including solar and wind - a guaranteed premium for the power they produce. One can sell self-generated solar power to the grid at a high rate and then buy back the power one needs at much lower rate.

In Quebec, that same energy producer could sell power to the grid but would receive only a credit equivalent to the basic power rate. If you export to the grid more than you use, there is no financial benefit to you.

Had Pogharian built the Hudson house in Ontario, it would have had more solar panels along with a shorter payback period.

"I would have made the house a net exporter of energy and not stopped at zero," Pogharian said.

At Toronto Electric, "the feed-in-tariff is the enabler to making solar rooftop work financially," said Allen who pegged the cost of the project at about $750,000.

"It creates a significant revenue stream" because the energy generated by the roof will be sold to the Ontario grid for 71.3 cents per kw/hr to the grid and returned to Toronto Electric at a rate of about 11 cents, he said.

So, currently, the best position for your solar roof is facing south and in Ontario.

Climate change forces us to rethink the very 20th century ways in which we've been thinking about energy

Traditional energy producers point out that feeding intermittent energy back into the grid would require significant upgrades and potentially a costly redesign but there may be another way to store renewable energy generated locally, sitting in the garage.

Electric cars already come with a large battery built in and it is feasible that this could receive renewable energy generated in the home at low peak times, either using it as fuel to drive the car or storing it and sending it back to the house at high peak. HSBC's Head of Climate Change Centre of Excellence, Nick Robins, says there is evidence that the transportation industry is taking this idea seriously, "increasingly the roll-out of electric vehicles is being driven, not by transport demands, but by energy storage demands."

The technology to make this work on a large scale is still at an early stage but Google have taken an interest, writing an algorithm to balance the charging requirements of a large number of electric cars connecting to the grid at once. Although this doesn't address the problem of sending energy back into the grid, many in the industry see it as an important first step.

"Climate change forces us to rethink the very 20th century ways in which we've been thinking about energy", explains Robins, "the model which is emerging is that you have a lot more decentralised generation of both electricity and heat."

There is one model that HSBC are quite keen to stick to, climate change may be a social and moral issue but one attraction for HSBC is more traditional, "the market for climate change goods and services is now $530 billion a year", says Robins, "that's bigger than the aerospace sector."

Kia shines in new era and new succes in its electric cars

WHEN it comes to setting targets Korean car producer Kia likes to think big.

A fringe player just a few years ago, the marque now performs on the major stage and aims to be in the world's top three manufacturers for actual quality within three years.

A lofty ambition perhaps, but Kia has a habit of delivering and only last week was named UK Automotive Company for 2010 by the Institute of Transport Management.

The reason - the Koreans' push towards a healthier industry plus its development of cost-efficient vehicles and environmentally sound manufacturing processes.

A key model in this brave new world is the oddly-named cee'd, launched two years ago and still the only car on sale in Europe with a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty as standard.

European designed and built it has proved a runaway success in that time and rather than facing a mid-life crisis it's about to take on a new lease of life.

Now there's a new cee'd that has been refreshed inside, outside and underneath.

Upgrades in the cabin mean better quality materials - though the two-tone seats look a bit 1970s naff rather than retro chic - extra kit and better comfort, from a starting price of £11,595 for the 1.4-litre three door pro-cee'd.

And to introduce the company's eventual move towards hybrids, electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles, the cee'd will be the first Kia available with emissions busting EcoDynamics.

This comes in the shape of an Intelligent Stop & Go system which turns off the engine when the car is stationary.

It's hardly a ground-breaking set-up but it works well and isn't in the least bit spooky when the engine cuts out at traffic lights for instance.

I picked a 30-minute route through Liverpool city centre in midweek and gauged the engine to be turned off for just under seven minutes, so there's a definite saving to be had.

Initially ISG will only be available in pro-cee'd, the five-door cee'd hatchback and cee'd SW estate models using the standard 1.6-litre 89bhp CRDi diesel powerplant.

It gives Kia a model that makes clear sense to business users, its CO2 emissions of just 110g/km meaning that companies can claim 100 per cent company car tax write-down in the first year of operation.

Of overall appeal is the figure of 67.3 miles per gallon fuel economy and the 13 per cent rate of benefit-in-kind tax, considerably lower than many rivals.

To simplify the model line-up the new range is badged cee'd 1, 2 and 3, with 1.4 and 1.6 petrol engines and two 1.6-litre diesels producing 89 and 113bhp.

While the original cee'd remains an enjoyable and agile car to drive, the revamped models - which also incorporate a new Kia family face first seen on the Soul urban runabout - feel better still thanks to a revised suspension and a new stability management system.

I took three versions on a mixed test route over 80 miles and all gave the feel of a more expensive car. The dash is well designed, the steering wheel trendy, interior space excellent bar a perched centre rear position and the manual gearshift (now six-speed on all diesels) is slick.

Most appealing is the 113bhp diesel cee'd 2 SW estate at £14,995 - the engine's quiet, the torque comes in early and the styling and boot space is first class.

But then even the most basic models are thoroughly kitted out with the likes of air con with cooled glovebox, RDS radio-CD player that's compatible with MP3 players, rake and reach steering adjustment and a height-adjustable driver's seat, trip computer, front electric windows, deadlocks, six airbags, headlamp levellers, and steering wheel-mounted audio controls and tinted glass included.

More than 17,000 UK buyers now have a cee'd planted on their driveway - with the latest version that figure is set to really sprout

is it green car meaning?

Every Junior Seminar in the Department of Environmental Science has as its main focus a project whose completion is important to some stakeholder outside the college. Sometimes the party waiting for the report being prepared by students enrolled in the seminar is mildly interested in the outcome, prepared to take into consideration the research and ideas of Allegheny's juniors. Other times--and this is one of those unusual occasions--the outside participant is anxiously awaiting the class' findings.

Your task, at least on the face of it, is rather simple. If your research and reports are professionally sound and of high enough quality you are likely to see the fruits of your labor around the time you graduate from Allegheny College.

Allegheny College wants Carr Hall to be green, but I'm not sure they are fully aware of what benefits a green building could bring the campus beyond the feel-good nature of what it can do for the ES department. That's what your job is. WHY build green? What does it mean for the ES Department? The Physics Department? The student body? Administration? Fund Raisers? Prospective students? Funders? Graduates? Visitors? Future buildings, maintenance and operations?

CBI chief's sustainable vision blows away hot air

Richard Lambert meets manufacturers in the north-east to gain an insight into how the region can reinvent itself

In a hangar once used for shipbuilding on the coast at Blyth in the north-east, a large wind turbine blade, looking like the rib of a giant whale, lies flat on a trestle. Another sticking out of a machine at the back of the hangar is being shaken up and down repeatedly. By the end of three weeks, it will have undergone two and a half million cycles in each direction to make sure it doesn't break.

Richard Lambert, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry, in hard hat and sheltering from the rain under a large umbrella, is taking in the scene. "Forgive me for sounding romantic," he says. "But we do have the capacity for a manufacturing renaissance over the next few years, and if we don't grasp it, future generations will curse us one way or another."

The research and testing facility for the wind and marine industries, called Narec, was one visit on a whistle-stop tour of firms in the low carbon industry undertaken by Lambert last week. His aim was to get a better sense of the attempts to reinvent a region scarred by thousands of job losses in its former smokestack industries. The visit also took in Smith Electric Vehicles, which has been manufacturing since the 1920s, and Banks, a coal miner now trying to re-shape itself as an onshore wind firm.

The trip was partly a fact-finding mission. When Nissan in Sunderland secured a £200m investment in July to build batteries for electric-powered cars, it was hailed by Gordon Brown and Business Secretary Peter Mandelson as a key moment. To mark the investment by the company's Japanese parent, they grandly declared the north-east a low carbon economic zone. But was there any substance behind the rhetoric?

Lambert makes trips like these "most weeks". It is on them, he says, that he gets a real idea of business concerns. "It was very marked last year that, through until March or April, the further away from London you got, and from banking and real estate, the more prosperous people felt. I suspect it is now the other way around".

Narec is backed by the regional development agency One North East, although it now makes around half its budget from commercial contracts, stress-testing blades and marine equipment in three docks, and the impact of lightning on blades in a high-voltage facility. The centre also took over a specialist solar-research division from BP. It currently works with US wind farm company, Clipper, and others from Japan and Europe, and aims to be self sufficient by 2011, hopefully attracting manufacturing and jobs to the region.

"No one else is doing this," Narec chairman Alan Rutherford told Lambert. "The development of new technology is a very expensive process and there are not many organisations that can fund the sort of assets we have off balance sheet. We are correcting market failure.

"We are talking to some heavy hitters around the world about moving to Blyth to develop operations in the North Sea, to develop prototypes and then hopefully full-scale manufacturing on the Tyne. But it is highly competitive. We lost out on onshore wind – the Danes, the Germans and the Dutch got all the business. As far as we are concerned, we are a neck ahead in offshore and want to stay that way."

At a round table where the CBI chief faced leading figures in the wind industry, both the potential and the challenges were laid out. David Still, managing director of Clipper, estimated that around £70bn would be invested in offshore wind between now and 2020. He said that his company was looking to make blades on the Tyne if the infrastructure and support were in place, benefiting the supply chain as well. "The key issue is how much we capture in the UK," he said. "If we make 100 turbines here, someone is going to have to build the foundations, and the steel plate that goes into that is about 10% of [nearby] Corus's annual output."

But significant investment is needed to upgrade the National Grid and the ports in particular, to ensure they can cope with the massive equipment and turbines. "Look at Sunderland," said Martin Lawlor from the Port of Blyth. "[It was] once one of the biggest shipbuilders in the world, where all you can see now on the river is flats." Land also needs to be made available for the manufacturing and storage of the huge turbines.

Planning remains a key concern, and this emerged at Banks, which has a target of 250 megawatts of wind power by 2012. "The government has abdicated delivery of energy supply and generation to the private sector and is not helping it," said Mark Dowdall, at Banks. "The country needs to look at speeding up the whole process if it is to hit its renewables target. It is often up to local authorities to consider big contentious projects and elected members get a lot of earache from constituents."

The urgency for investment has not passed Lambert by. "I was in a meeting with a government minister a couple of weeks ago discussing the impending energy gap and he said, 'well the recession is a big help'," Lambert said, banging his head on the table in mock exasperation. The CBI's official stance is to support the need for a mix of energy, including nuclear and clean coal. "We support the government's targets for greenhouse gas mitigation for 2020, but we are anxious about the renewable targets, because frankly we think they are incredible."

Smith Electric Vehicles began life building trolley buses, trams and milk floats, and now re-engineers commercial vehicles for the likes of Sainsbury's and TNT, and collaborates with Ford. But chairman Roy Stanley said Mandelson's designation for the area appears to have been empty words. "There is nothing tangible," he told the CBI chief. "I don't want to come across as jaundiced. But if you are to very graciously declare this a low carbon economic zone, what does it mean? Define it, tell us what it is, don't just give us a label."

The pain is evident at Smith. Its parent company, the Tanfield Group, which also makes access platforms for the construction industry, has slashed staff numbers and executives have taken a 20% pay cut, as orders for electric vehicles faltered and the market for access platforms collapsed. The production facility is eerily empty. There is capacity for 1,500 vehicles a year, but it is currently producing 10% of that. The company is having to keep many of its suppliers afloat with upfront payments, though Stanley said the market has started to improve.

"So, if I am on an aeroplane with Lord Mandelson, just as he is dropping off to sleep, what is the punchline?" asked Lambert. One idea, Stanley said, would be to kick start orders by giving buyers of commercial electric vehicles a capital allowance, as with ordinary cars.

"There is a certain feeling that people want to cluster round and share the pain and find out how everyone else is doing," said Lambert as he headed off to the regional CBI black tie dinner in Gateshead. "It does feel much lighter now than February or March, but then it was really dark. What people worry about is that there are a lot of temporary stimuluses going through – the car scrappage, the end of stock liquidation, huge monetary stimulus, fiscal stimulus – but what will happen when that starts to run out? Where will the engine of demand come from? I think the recovery is going to be pretty protracted."

The next day at Nissan, though, the mood is upbeat. In January the company was forced to let 1,200 people go, taking the factory down from three to two shifts. But the shifts are again running with overtime and 350 temporary workers have been taken back on since March, partly thanks to the cash-for-clunkers scheme.

But the investment in electric batteries, is the real cause for optimism. Trevor Mann, senior vice-president for manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain for Nissan Europe, looks out of the boardroom window at the site for the battery plant. "This is the biggest single investment that this plant has had since 1992," he says. He says he is "optimistic" that electric car production will be heading to Sunderland.

Mann says Sunderland secured the contract as a result of a long period of lowering costs and improving efficiency, as the plant sought to avoid the fate of others that closed in Britain in the 1990s, such as Peugeot in Coventry. "Nothing is owed to us, everything is earned. And everybody recognises that."

London’s electric car company NICE (No Internal Combustion Engine) says it expects to build sales under new mayor Boris Johnson. That’s thanks to a combination of exemption from the capital’s congestion charge, free parking and growing concern among Londoners over the spiralling cost of petrol and diesel.

While the new mayor has said he will reform congestion charge, NICE believes owners of its Mega City car should continue to pay nothing to enter the zone. Small and pretty, the cars travel up to 40 mile on just one overnight charge, more than adequate for the majority of daily journeys. Crucially, they are also pollution-free; they emit no CO₂, no NO_X and no carbon monoxide.

“We know that Boris recognises the many benefits of owning an electric car,” said Julian Wilford, co-founder of NICE cars. “But we also understand the importance of choice to the mayor – and to our customers. At the NICE Car Company we have the widest range of zero-emissions vehicles on the market and hope the new mayor will find time to visit our West London base to learn more.”

Petrol and diesel now cost more than £5 a gallon which means around 14p per mile for an owner of a medium-sized car, capable of 35mpg. NICE owners pay around a tenth of that - just 1.5 p per mile. As Vehicle Excise Duty is also CO₂-based, they also benefit from no annual road tax.

Launched at the British Motor Show in 2006, the NICE Car Company will be back at the ExCeL-based show from 23 July to 3 August this year. It will have a bigger stand, with several model launches. It will also reveal more about plans to have electric models in many different market segments by the end of the year.