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RESULTS		Results 601 – 625 of 676
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Defrost Cost On car heaters	Umbra Fisk	28 Oct 2003	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, My friend and I have a bet going that I hope you can settle. She thinks that running the heat in a car in the winter is "free" -- that is, it doesn't use additional gas. As a conservationist, this pleases her greatly. However, I think that turning on the heat does use additional gas if you are using the defroster. Can you settle this for us? Thanks! Sama Denver, Colo. Dearest Sama, You win. But I fear this is a wager wi ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, cars, energy, energy efficiency, green living, placemaking (all these topics)

Cheap Tricks I Toyota Says Hybrids Can Be Inexpensive to Manufacture		03 Oct 2003	Daily Grist
Cheap Tricks I Toyota Says Hybrids Can Be Inexpensive to Manufacture Defying conventional wisdom, Toyota unveiled its new hybrid-car production site in Toyota City, Japan, yesterday and sent a clear message to other automakers: Gas-electric hybrids can be manufactured inexpensively. Such cars have traditionally been thought of as too costly to be practical, and Toyota and Honda, the only two companies to ...
Topics: business, cars, electric vehicles, hybrids, Prius (all these topics)

The Corrections Reader responses on family cars, the internal combustion engine, and more	Umbra Fisk	11 Jun 2003	Ask Umbra
Dearest Readers, How I enjoy your letters! I'm sorry I'm unable to answer them all; lest you fear that they vanish into the void, I assure you they do not. I read each and every one of them down here in Stacklandia. I must in particular thank those of you who write in to correct, amend, or expand on issues I address in my columns. Almost without exception, those perspic ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, cars, fuel efficiency, green living, placemaking (all these topics)

Plane Text Advice on driving vs. flying	Umbra Fisk	28 May 2003	Ask Umbra
Hi Umbra, I'm wondering if you have any numbers comparing the fuel efficiency of flying versus driving the average car for the same distance. Also, how does carbon dioxide production compare for the same trip? Steve Loomis, Calif. Dearest Steve, Flight blight? Here's what I can find so far, courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Institute in beautiful Snowmass, Colo. Single-occupancy automobiles produce 0.91 pounds of carbon dioxide per ...
Topics: advice, air pollution, Ask Umbra, cars, fuel efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking, travel (all these topics)

Gnarly Davidson On motorcycles	Umbra Fisk	28 May 2003	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, I recently read a claim that "motorcycles produce far more pollution per mile than your typical car, truck, or SUV." Is that true? I've got a friend who's currently making her (bad-ass) way across country on a Harley -- 60 mpg, baby -- and we are both curious about the environmental impacts compared with a car. Billy Brooklyn, N.Y. Dearest Billy, Bad news for your friend and her bad behind. If she's getting 60 miles ...
Topics: advice, air pollution, Ask Umbra, cars, energy, fuel efficiency, green living, placemaking (all these topics)

Vantastic On minivans	Umbra Fisk	28 May 2003	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, We have a six-year-old daughter, a three-year-old daughter, and -- surprise! (well, not completely) -- a new baby girl due in the next two months. Our fuel-efficient car cannot fit two car seats and a booster across the back seat, and according to Washington state law ("six-years-old and 60 pounds"), my petite six-year-old will remain in her booster for some time. I've been looking into minivans but am discouraged by their poo ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, cars, energy, fuel efficiency, green living, placemaking (all these topics)

Things That Make You Go Hummer		07 May 2003	Daily Grist
Things That Make You Go Hummer Yesterday, Grist reported that the average fuel efficiency of U.S. vehicles is at a 22-year low. Today, we're happy to report that at least people are upset about it. A survey of complaints about new vehicles, released yesterday by J. D. Powers and Associates, found that fuel consumption was the second-most-common complaint among all respondents. In the 17 years ...
Topics: business, cars, fuel efficiency, hybrids, placemaking, Prius (all these topics)

Cutting the Cord		25 Apr 2003	Daily Grist
Cutting the Cord Fuel cells and hybrids are hot; electric vehicles are not. That's the word from the California Air Resources Board, which yesterday axed groundbreaking 1990 rules requiring auto manufacturers to sell a fixed number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the state, including 10 percent of cars sold this year. Instead, the board approved more modest regulations that will force car compani ...
Topics: air pollution, California, cars, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics)

Driving Us Crazy		21 Apr 2003	Daily Grist
Driving Us Crazy Toyota last week unveiled a spiffy new version of its hybrid gas-electric Prius, which will get better gas mileage (55 miles to the gallon), emit fewer air pollutants, and give passengers more room than previous Prius models. The car will hit showrooms late this year as a 2004 model. Toyota also said it plans to eventually spread its hybrid technology throughout its fleet. But sales of P ...
Topics: business, cars, electric vehicles, hybrids, Prius (all these topics)

You Can Hardly Prius Out of 'em		24 Mar 2003	Daily Grist
You Can Hardly Prius Out of 'em Some stars toned down the glitz at last night's Academy Awards ceremony in acknowledgement of the war in Iraq, while others toned down their energy consumption, arriving at the event in gas-electric hybrid cars instead of gas-guzzling stretch limos. Actress Cameron Diaz was chauffeured to the Oscars in her own Toyota Prius. "I drive it e ...
Topics: Cameron Diaz, cars, celebrity, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids, Prius (all these topics)

We're Not Gonna Rock Down to Electric Avenue		05 Mar 2003	Daily Grist
We're Not Gonna Rock Down to Electric Avenue The electric car could soon go the way of the dodo, as California moves toward eliminating a rule first approved in 1990 to force automakers to sell a fixed number of electric cars in the state. The proposed changes to the zero-emissions-vehicle rule would allow car manufacturers to earn credits for low-emissions hybrid vehicles, instead o ...
Topics: California, cars, electric vehicles, energy, hydrogen, Washington DC (all these topics)

Things That Make You Go Hum-vee		20 Dec 2002	Daily Grist
Things That Make You Go Hum-vee Tax deductions granted by the federal government to small-business owners and the self-employed provide an incentive to purchase oversize, gas-guzzling vehicles like a General Motors Hummer, rather than small, more fuel-efficient cars like the hybrid Toyota Prius. An eligible buyer of a 2003 Hummer H2 could deduct $34,912 of the base price of the vehicle, for a tax savings ...
Topics: cars, hybrids, jackassery, placemaking, politics (all these topics)

Wild Horses Couldn't Prius Away		11 Dec 2002	Daily Grist
Wild Horses Couldn't Prius Away Toyota Prius owners -- celebs and regular folks alike -- are doing more than saving money at the gas pump and curbing greenhouse-gas emissions: They're also making a political statement, thumbing their noses at Saddam Hussein, oil barons, and SUV owners everywhere. Wyatt Earp, a descendant of the legendary gunslinger, has purchased four hybrid-electric P ...
Topics: Cameron Diaz, cars, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids, Prius (all these topics)

Electric Avenues?		25 Oct 2002	Daily Grist
Electric Avenues? What do Detroit billionaires do with their cash after they retire from the upper echelons of the auto industry? The answer, in the cases of Lee Iacocca and Robert Stempel, may surprise you: They start electric-car companies. Stempel, the former head of General Motors, helped create the emissions-reducing catalytic converter in 1966 and has always had a bit of an environmental bent. Now, as chair of Energ ...
Topics: business, cars, electric vehicles (all these topics)

Grease Be With You Advice on converting to biodiesel	Umbra Fisk	10 Oct 2002	Ask Umbra
Umbra, I own a diesel VW Golf, which I bought thinking it was a better choice for the environment than a gasoline engine. Therefore, I was disappointed to read your message that diesel is probably a worse choice. However, you didn't talk at all about biodiesel. Can you give us a rundown on this fuel -- how to get it, how it may be beneficial, and what you might have to do to ensure your car can run on it safely? Thank ...
Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, biofuels, cars, energy, food and agriculture, green living, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking (all these topics)

Think Tanks		03 Sep 2002	Daily Grist
Think Tanks In another sign of the struggling automotive industry, Ford has abandoned a $123 million electric car venture known as Think. The company said it would instead invest in other alternative technologies, such as hybrid-electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells. Ford is cutting the initiative despite a California mandate that auto manufacturers offer up to 100,000 low-emissions vehicles per year beginni ...
Topics: business, cars, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics)

Got Sun? Marketing the revolution in clean energy	Amanda Griscom	29 Aug 2002	Powers That Be
Last month, 10 solar-powered race cars zipped around a 1.5-mile NASCAR track at the legendary Texas Motor Speedway, some of them reaching the dizzying speed of 35 miles per hour. With all its technological novelty and timely political implications, the Dell and Winston Solar Challenge (named for the computer and cigarette companies that sponsored it) might have been a grand public spectacle. But the entire 155,000-se ...
Topics: advertising, Bill McKibben, cars, grassroots activism, placemaking, politics, renewable energy, solar voltaic power, United States (all these topics)

Sin Diesel On diesel engines	Umbra Fisk	15 Aug 2002	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, Longtime reader; first-time writer. Love the column. My partner and I recently bought a small station wagon to replace our 4WD pick-up and '83 sedan. After some debate, we chose a turbo-diesel engine that boasts about 45 miles per gallon instead of a gas engine, which gets about 30 MPG. Our thinking led us to choose the higher fuel efficiency and lower CO2 emissions of the diesel engine, although the gas engine produces fewer par ...
Topics: advice, air pollution, Ask Umbra, cars, energy, green living, oil, placemaking, toxics (all these topics)

Autodidactic On picking the right car	Umbra Fisk	15 Aug 2002	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, In 1981, I bought my first car, a Honda Civic. It was a great car, and despite what certain congressional leaders say about car size and safety, an excellent vehicle for handling winter snow and ice in mountain driving in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The problem is that now, living in Pennsylvania, my husband and I and our three children are looking for a car that will be able to carry the five of us for the next 10 years wi ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, cars, fuel efficiency, green living, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking (all these topics)

Coolant On cooling your car	Umbra Fisk	15 Aug 2002	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, Is it more efficient to drive down the highway with my windows down or the air conditioner on? I know the air conditioner decreases gas mileage, but I bet having my windows down at 75 miles per hour produces pretty good drag. Thanks, Sara Dearest Sara, This is July's Question of the Month for Grist readers, apparently. I received a passel of virtually identical queries with minute variations. ("How much drag do you get from ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, cars, fuel efficiency, green living, placemaking (all these topics)

Oh, What a Bad Feeling		01 Aug 2002	Daily Grist
Oh, What a Bad Feeling Toyota has been getting a lot of kudos recently for its low-emissions hybrid vehicle, the Prius -- but the car company increased its carbon emissions in the U.S. during the 1990s more than any other major automaker in the country, according to a report released this week by Environmental Defense. The group said Toyota increased its CO2 emissions by a whoppin ...
Topics: air pollution, business, cars, electric vehicles, hybrids, ozone, Prius (all these topics)

Ken Norwick, electric vehicle advocate		12 Jul 2002	Dispatches
Ken Norwick is a systems analyst and an electric vehicle advocate who converted his 1996 Saturn to electric power two years ago. Dispatch: 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 Friday, 12 Jul 2002 CALGARY, Alberta, Canada Like anyone else on a Friday afternoon, I hope to leave work at a reasonable time. I will run past everyone I see, wishing them all a good weekend, and then I will head across the parking lot of the research park to my electric vehicle. Even the CEO of Calgar ...
Topics: cars, Dispatches, electric vehicles (all these topics)

Ken Norwick, electric vehicle advocate		10 Jul 2002	Dispatches
Ken Norwick is a systems analyst and an electric vehicle advocate who converted his 1996 Saturn to electric power two years ago. Dispatch: 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 Wednesday, 10 Jul 2002 CALGARY, Alberta, Canada Planning for winter -- it's a weird thing to be thinking about at the beginning of the summer, but with my busy schedule I don't really have a choice. I need to repair the electric heaters located under the dash of my EV car before the cold weather comes. ...
Topics: cars, Dispatches, electric vehicles (all these topics)

Ken Norwick, electric vehicle advocate		09 Jul 2002	Dispatches
Ken Norwick is a systems analyst and an electric vehicle advocate who converted his 1996 Saturn to electric power two years ago. Dispatch: 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 Tuesday, 09 Jul 2002 CALGARY, Alberta, Canada I turn the key to the start position on my homemade 1996 Saturn electric car and hold it for about a second. The soft click that follows is the only indication that the car has started. I push the clutch in and shift into reverse. With your foot off of the a ...
Topics: cars, Dispatches, electric vehicles (all these topics)

Ken Norwick, electric vehicle advocate		08 Jul 2002	Dispatches
Ken Norwick is a systems analyst and an electric vehicle advocate who converted his 1996 Saturn to electric power two years ago. Dispatch: 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 Monday, 08 Jul 2002 CALGARY, Alberta, Canada I'm a programmer by way of occupation, but a "Curious George" by nature. I like to spend my free time out in my garage tinkering away. For the next five days I am going to describe what it is like to live and commute with an electric car -- specific ...
Topics: cars, Dispatches, electric vehicles (all these topics)

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