EVs
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How China will force Americans to drive electric cars
The sheer number of vehicles being added in Asia means a whole new level of competition for oil. It’s a competition that Asia will almost surely win, and will probably do more to drive the adoption of electric cars in the U.S. than any policy or tax credit.
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Denver zoo test-drives elephant-poop-powered vehicle
The Denver Zoo has to deal with a lot of waste. A good deal of that waste comes from visitors, but the zoo also produces hundreds of thousands of pounds of animal poo each year. Now, zoo engineers have found a positive use for it: They rigged up a poo-powered tuk-tuk. (A tuk-tuk is a […]
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Critical List: More than 800,000 anti-Keystone messages delivered; Obama could veto transportation bill
The anti-Keystone email campaign gathered more than 800,000 messages to Senate leadership. Check out this picture of the messages being delivered. Internal documents from Heartland Institute, the climate-denying think tank, show funding from sources like Microsoft, Koch Industries (which had reportedly stopped funding the institute), tobacco companies, and other corporations. One “Anonymous Donor” gave more […]
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Critical List: Illinois installed the most wind turbines in 2011; Weathercasters aren’t climate scientists
Illinois installed the most new wind turbines in 2011. In five years, there could be 39 million “micro-hybrids” — cars that have a battery to increase cars’ efficiency, but that aren’t quite as awesome as Priuses or other full hybrids. Weather forecasters don’t understand climate science. Don’t believe them when they say climate change doesn’t […]
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Almost all U.S. car use is within an electric car’s range
Because it takes longer to fill up an electric vehicle than to fill a gas tank, and because EV infrastructure is still limited, the most common criticism of EVs goes something like “OMG RANGE ANXIETY.” And, sure, no one wants to get stuck in their big metal bucket on the side of a highway until […]
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Critical List: Military could produce 7 GW of solar; British survey hedgehogs
Solar projects at desert military bases could produce 7,000 megawatts of solar energy — a huge amount. EVs have more than enough range to make 95 percent of the trips we take by car. Scotland aims to source 100 percent of its power from renewables by 2020, but to reach that goal, it needs the […]
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New York City to test electric taxis
Within a few months, it will be possible to step out onto a New York City street corner and hail a Nissan Leaf. The city's starting a pilot program to see how the cars fare as taxis, and exploring the possibility of an all-electric fleet. But EV enthusiasts shouldn't get too excited yet. Nor should […]
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Critical List: Durban is over; Rick Perry is an idiot
The Durban round of COP talks ended over the weekend with a "platform" that outlines how work towards a new climate treaty will progress over the next few years. But that's really not good enough. Rick Perry thinks the company called Solyndra is a country called Solynda. That's in Africa, right? It's easier to find […]
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After-school EV club is so much cooler than yearbook
In Kansas City, Mo., high school students enrolled in the after-school program Minddrive are building an electric car. They meet three times every two weeks. They started with a decade-old Reynard Champ Car, and have turned it into an electric vehicle that will drive from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Diego, Calif., over their spring break. […]