Gas 2.0

Today, the first customer to get a Tata Nano will take delivery of the world’s cheapest car, at $2,053 - and right on schedule. Tata had announced the first deliveries would be in July of 2009 when orders were first taken earlier this year. 

For a gasoline car; the Nano has astounding mileage ; 56 mpg while producing emissions of just 101 grams of CO₂ per km, lower than even European requirements, forget about the U.S. (We have none: the sky’s the limit - literally)

Even more surprising, just old fashioned simple tech makes this price and mileage possible:
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Who doesn’t want to find a way to save on gas and also find an excuse to purchase an iPhone? Well now you have one. MaxQData, LLC announced today the availability of a new application called Bliss Trek, which the company is hailing as the first “eco-driving” application for the iPhone.

At first glance, you’d think that it would direct you the the gas station with the cheapest gas. But alas, you are wrong. It actually works by utilizing speed and acceleration information in real time to provide immediate feedback to drivers about the efficiency of their driving. Drivers earn points for efficient driving behavior such as driving the speed limit on the highway and for smooth acceleration and braking and lose points for less efficient behavior such as driving 100 mph or sitting idle. A friendly animated interface displays the current score along with speed and other information. Read the rest of this entry »

Norwegian Finance Minister, Kristin Halvorsen, and her Socialist Left Party have put forth a plan that would disallow the sale of new cars that run solely on gasoline after 2015.

Under the plan new cars such as hybrids, that run partially on gas, would still be allowed to be sold in the country, but any cars that only use gas as their power source would be illegal. Cars already on the road would be unaffected.

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Every time the price of oil drops, the demand for that same product increases and the  demand for alternate fuels, decreases. Why are gas prices falling?

China Daily reported that “oil dropped more than 6 percent to below $88.00 a barrel on Monday as a global market rout churned concerns that faltering fuel demand could slow further.”

In other words, we aren’t buying enough, so it’s time to lower the price.  But can anyone other than the people vested in that market honestly say that we don’t use enough oil?

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This post was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on September 28.

Bill Roth is the author of the new and important book “On Empty (Out of Time)“, which readers have described as “America’s final “wake-up call”" and “A must read if you want freedom from high pump prices!”.

We reviewed the book at the beginning of the month and I felt afterwards that this issue is way too important and requires an interview with the author to learn more about his views and thoughts on the energy issues we’re facing.

Firstly here’s a little background of the author (see also photo below): Bill Roth has a solid experience in the energy sector, with a career that included posts such as senior VP of marketing and sales with PG&E Energy Services and COO of Texaco Ovonics Hydrogen Solutions. Currently he is the President of NCCT, a San Francisco-based consulting firm helping businesses define and integrate Sustainability into their strategies, performance metrics, branding/marketing and business processes.. He is also Entrepreneur.com’s Green Business Coach.

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With American S.U.V. sales at an all time low and owners unable to sell them, manufacturers have had to come up with new market.  Right now that market is in Russia.

Russia, with a population of over 150 Million people, may not sound like the greatest market, but the fact that less than 20 percent of the population even owns a vehicle, makes it huge rife for potential.  According to Pricewaterhousecoopers LLP, Russian bought 1.6 million vehicles in the first six months of the year, a 40 per increase from the first half of 2007. Well, to begin with, gas cost’s more than half as much than in most Western European Markets.  Add in the fact that their economy is growing from between 6 and 8 percent annually, partly do to swelling commodity prices on its vast oil reserves, and the countries notoriusly rough roads and winters, and you have a mix ripe with possibilities.

Though Russia’s economy is doing well, housing continues to be very cost prohibitive to a great  portion of the population.  Not everyone can afford decent housing, and a lot of people have actually invested their money in high end S.U.V.’s to live in.

As with any society that is going through burgeoning growth, Russian consumers have become very brand conscience, and you can be sure that American Auto Manufacturers will be there to make sure that even they, can have a piece of the American Way.

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Editor’s note: There’s no doubt: Americans are feeling the pinch at the gas pump (even if we’re still paying less than residents of most other developed nations). Our friends at Low Impact Living, though, think Chrysler’s attempt to lure car buyers with the promise of gas at $2.99/gallon is, well, lame. This post was originally published on Friday, May 23rd, 2008.

Chrysler has recently launched its “Let’s Refuel America” campaign in which it claims to offer Americans protection from rising gas prices. Anyone buying a Chrysler in the month of May will get the deal. Here’s how it works: each qualifying buyer will get a ‘gas card’ that has been linked to their own credit card, but when they gas-up they will only pay $2.99 a gallon with Chrysler charged the difference. You can read more about it here.

This is a really lame-brained scheme. It reminds me of the McCain-Clinton proposal to cut federal gas taxes during the summer– it’s the wrong solution for our economic woes. Yes, we’re all hurting from gas prices and we need relief (what are the oil companies offering consumers in terms of help, hmmmm? anyone? hello?). But what Chrysler is offering is an incentive for consumers to ignore gas prices and drive, drive, drive– producing more green house gases and increasing global warming.

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Residents of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho are outpacing the national average decline in gas consumption, according to a new report by the Sightline Instutute.

In the last 8 years, residents of these states have cut back by about a gallon per week, for a total gas consumption reduction of 11%. In the Pacific Northwest, gas usage has fallen to its lowest level since 1966, while CO2 emissions from gasoline have fallen by six-tenths of a ton per capita since 1999. Read the rest of this entry »