Energy

BMW has announced the introduction of the first hydrogen powered luxury car. Rather than C02, pure water vapor drips from its exhaust pipe. While the hydrogen tank’s range is limited to 200 kilometers (124 miles), a button on the steering wheel can switch the car from hydrogen to allow the car to use gas, allowing up to 500 additional kilometers (310 miles).

The International Energy Agency (IEA) came out with yet another economic report announcing the cost effectiveness of cleaner energy. Through use of energy trends, the World Energy Outlook, a division of IEA, demonstrated that the world will be facing unstable energy supplies at affordable prices and extreme environmental damage due to over-consumption of energy by 2030.

Several years ago, concerned by the time and energy South African women spent fetching water from distant, often polluted sources, Trevor Fields decided to do something. Fields teamed up with an inventor to produce the PlayPump—a children’s merry-go-round, that when spun, pumps water from below ground to an above-ground storage tank. Each PlayPump costs about $14,000, but operating costs are nil since the pumps are run by kidpower.

In the September issue of Fast Company, author Charles Fishman begins his story like this: Sitting humbly on shelves in stores everywhere is a product, priced at less than $3, that will change the world. Soon. It is a fairly ordinary item that nonetheless cuts to the heart of a half-dozen of the most profound, most urgent problems we face. Energy consumption. Rising gasoline costs and electric bills. Greenhouse-gas emissions. Dependence on coal and foreign oil. Global warming.

Culminating a hike of several hundred miles, West Virginia grandfather Ed Wiley will arrive in Washington tomorrow to ask the federal government to help where his local officials’ resources fall short. Wiley, a former coal industry contractor, wants to see Marsh Fork Elementary moved from its current location, just yards from a coal silo he says makes kids sick--informal surveys indicate that many of Marsh Fork’s 220 students do have asthma or chronic bronchitis.

The U.S. would have imported about 20 percent less foreign oil in 2005 if automakers met federal fuel efficiency or miles per gallon (MPG) standards based on real world driving conditions. That reduction is equivalent to more than 1.3 times the amount of oil imported from Saudi Arabia in 2005, or about two million barrels of oil per day. For consumers this translates into 33 billion gallons of gasoline saved that year.

This shot was submitted by Susan A. from Dallas who would like to remind us that: "While consumers are paying record-breaking high prices for gasoline, former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond got a $400,000,000 compensation package in 2005."

Americans in 50 metro areas will pay $83 billion more for gasoline this year at $3 per gallon, compared to the prices they paid in February 2003 — and even more if prices continue to rise as expected, says a new Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis that calculates the increased cost of gasoline per family in the 50 largest metro areas.