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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
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
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
The DeLorean DMC-12, the iconic sportscar made famous in the time-traveling eighties flick Back To The Future, is set to return to American roads in 2013. It will retain its retro-futuristic look, says Humble, Texas-based DeLorean Motor Company, but the internal combustion engine will be replaced by a lithium battery setup designed by FLUX Power. The DMC-12 EV, which will retail for......read more
If we had to guess what America's top cycling city is, we'd probably say Portland, where the perfect combination of mild climate and smart planning makes the city a veritable biking mecca. But, if the results of a new report from the Alliance for Biking & Walking are to be believed, we'd be wrong. According to the organization's biannual benchmark report, the city with the greatest......read more
