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In news that will surprise no one who's considered the issue for more than three seconds, a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that electric cars are only as green as the power plants that fuel them. In regions where the electric grid is supplied by cleaner energy sources, such as natural gas, or renewable sources, like wind or solar, driving an electric vehicle produces......read more
If you love your bike, why not show it off? The Pinch, from Pittsburgh, PA cycling boutique ClankWorks, is a perfect bike stand solution for the home. Designed and manufactured in the Steel City, the Pinch is made of two elegantly shaped slats of bamboo laminate. The unit uses the weight of your bicycle to firmly lock the rear wheel into place, then, when you're ready to roll, just lift your......read more
Last year, President Obama made an executive order demanding that the federal government reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Now, the US Postal Service is heeding the call. In Key West, FL., mail carriers have switched from delivery vans to T-3 electric delivery carts, which cost 25 cents per day to run and have zero emissions. The smaller carts are faster than walking and more efficient than......read more
Freewheelers is a series of video portraits of tricked-out bikes and the people who ride them – from self-build fixies and coveted vintage steeds to bikes as art or manifestations of style. Two bipartisan senators have proposed a sensible idea that most people are going to hate. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) wrote to President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal......read more
Ladies and gentlemen, (silently) start your engines. After two decades of fits and starts, the electric car revolution is finally upon us. The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are both slated to start hitting dealerships next month, and combined sales are expected to surpass 30,000 over the next year. Meanwhile, electric utilities don't know whether to lick their chops or wring their hands. A......read more
Folded Roads: Google Earth images become surrealist artworks in Clement Valla's series Postcards from Google Earth, which depicts bridges and roads that appear warped when you zoom in just the right way. T-Shirt Upholstery: Swedish eco designer (and mega babe) Maria Westerberg won first prize at the 2011 Green Furniture Awards for the T-shirt Chair, made of recycled textiles and bent wire fence.......read more
In the early '90s, Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle pioneered the use of carbon fiber in bike frames. The material, though much admired for its strength and weight, is generally understood to be impossible to recycle. Fast forward a couple decades, and the cycling company has launched a full-scale carbon recycling program for all of the scrap carbon fiber generated at its U.S. facilities. "It is......read more
Five years ago, director Chris Paine ruffled a few feathers with Who Killed the Electric Car, a blockbuster documentary that exposed the development and mothballing of electric vehicles in the early 2000s. Now, with the first mass produced electric cars on the road, Paine is back with Revenge of the Electric Car, a behind-the-scenes exploration of the nascent EV industry.......read more
With Obama calling for the federal government to lead the way in sustainable practices, government officials have been getting down to business. This week, the feds announced the purchase of the first electric vehicles in the federal fleet. The purchase involved 116 cars -- a smorgasbord of Chevy Volts, Nissan Leafs, and Think Cities -- which will make their ways to 20 different agencies. Martha......read more
While American cities tend to bend over backwards to accommodate vehicle traffic, cities in Europe are going the opposite direction, making planning changes that make it prohibitively annoying and expensive (if not downright illegal) to drive cars in the inner city. NYT environment reporter Elizabeth Rosenthal discusses the traffic-tormenting situation in Europe: Cities including......read more
