Grist | Topics | 229 Results

RESULTS		Results 76 – 100 of 229
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Meeting notes The lost art of conversation	biodiversivist	21 Apr 2007	Gristmill
I passed a big rabble of bikers on my way to downtown Seattle yesterday evening. Several complimented my bike as I passed. There were a couple of talls in the mix. I assumed it was another Critical Mass ride, but maybe not. Sure looked like fun. I need to participate in one of those someday. I periodically attend a monthly gathering of Seattle atheists. There are always new faces, and they pick a different restaurant every month for variety's sake. We chatted about t ...
Topics: bikes, cars, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids, placemaking, Prius, religion and spirituality (all these topics)

Smart grid baby steps: smart meters (metres?) in the U.K. Helping homeowners monitor electricity use	David Roberts	17 Apr 2007	Gristmill
One piece of the smart-grid puzzle is home electricity monitoring -- allowing homeowners (and eventually business and factory owners) to track their electricity use in real time. As the old saw goes, what gets measured gets done. Simply making people aware of energy flows is the first step to helping them modulate those flows efficiently. On that note, it's fantastic to see this: soon, every household in the U.K. will be able to request a smart meter and have it insta ...
Topics: electricity grid, energy, hybrids, placemaking, politics, United Kingdom (all these topics)

Hybrid power plant	David Roberts	16 Apr 2007	Gristmill
I guess as a blogger in good standing I should have some kind of instant opinion on this, but I don't: California approves the first "hybrid power plant" -- 90% natural gas, 10% solar. So why did Inland Energy decide to make solar a relatively small part of its plant rather than the main power producer? Reliability, says Barnett. 'We really didn't like that idea because we wanted the ability to provide a baseload plant.' What do y'all think? Update ...
Topics: energy, hybrids, solar voltaic power (all these topics)

Screw plug-in hybrid cars I prefer to fly	Adam Browning	10 Apr 2007	Gristmill
I changed my mind. I no longer want a plug-in hybrid car. Them's for punks. Now I want a solar/plug-in airplane. Video below the fold. Takeaway message: battery technology is the roadblock. That and rain.
Topics: cars, energy, green living, hybrids (all these topics)

Robin Hood approach to global warming Fuel-efficient vehicles could save you several times over	Adam Browning	09 Apr 2007	Gristmill
A proposed new California law would take from the guzzlers and give to the sippers: Call it the Robin Hood approach to global warming. California drivers who buy new Hummers, Ford Expeditions, and other big vehicles that emit high levels of greenhouse gases would pay a fee of up to $2,500. And drivers who buy more fuel-efficient cars -- like the Toyota Prius or Ford Focus -- would receive rebates of up to $2,500, straight from the gas-guzzlers' pockets.Car deale ...
Topics: California, cars, climate, climate change mitigation, hybrids (all these topics)

Plugging plug-ins A cool video	Adam Browning	05 Apr 2007	Gristmill
More plug-in hybrid goodness: Let me again make the case for why electrifying transportation is one of the most important things happening. We don't have an energy problem. Plenty of it all around: Sun comes up every day. Wind. Tides. Waves. Energy everywhere you look. What we have is an energy storage problem. And electrifying transportation is the quickest way to perfect battery technology -- and distribute millions of them in houses throughout the coun ...
Topics: cars, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids (all these topics)

The Engine On the Bus Goes Plug, Plug, Plug U.S. states beginning to invest in plug-in hybrid school buses		03 Apr 2007	Daily Grist
The Engine On the Bus Goes Plug, Plug, Plug U.S. states beginning to invest in plug-in hybrid school buses Once upon a time, someone had an idea: let's transport U.S. schoolkids in big yellow buses that spew diesel fumes and have no seatbelts. The nation embraced the idea -- though oddly, the plan to dangle a knife above each seat was scrapped -- but now it's having secon ...
Topics: cars, education, electric vehicles, energy, hybrids, news, public transportation (all these topics)

Bob Lutz needs a vacation Read his cranky email to a consumer	David Roberts	30 Mar 2007	Gristmill
A reader wrote in to share this email exchange. This is the email she sent to GM -- as I understand, it's a form letter you can sign and send from the Plugin America website. Dear Sir, I am tired of being held by the throat by oil companies and I want to buy a car that uses cleaner, cheaper, domestic electricity for even a part of its overall range. Saturn used to lease the most efficient vehicle ever built. Since GM destroyed all EV1s, GM has not shown ...
Topics: Big Auto, cars, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids, jackassery (all these topics)

Is biofuel gasification just hot air? Or a new way forward?	Erik Hoffner	20 Mar 2007	Gristmill
File this under possibly hopeful news: Researchers at Purdue are calling an approach that gasifies biomass to make liquid fuels a "hybrid hydrogen-carbon process," or H2CAR. Read the article for the straight scoop, but it's basically adding hydrogen to biomass from a "carbon-free" energy source (solar? wind? nukes?), via gasification. The process would be more efficient than current biofuel production because it'd suppress the formation of carbon ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, hybrids, nuclear power (all these topics)

Great article on plug-in hybrids A must-read	David Roberts	06 Mar 2007	Gristmill
Let me most enthusiastically recommend this article in American Scientist on plug-in hybrids. It's by an engineer named Andrew Frank that's been working on hybrids in various incarnations since the early '70s. You green techno-geeks will love it. It's one of the most accessible pieces I've ever read on the history, technology, and challenges of plug-ins. You really should read the whole thing, but meat of it, for me, is in these three paragraphs toward the end: ...
Topics: cars, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics)

Instructions, pod leader? Where is the leadership?	biodiversivist	26 Feb 2007	Gristmill
The Ford Motor Company has come upon hard times. I may no longer qualify as a Grist brokeass, but I am still one at heart, and empathize with those thirty-odd thousand people who have lost or will soon lose their jobs. I have owned six cars in my life. Four of them were Pintos. Ford is a sinking ship and its captain was the first one to jump. A new pod leader has landed and his name is Alan Mulally. Alan, having been passed over multiple times for the CEO position ...
Topics: Big Auto, Prius, hybrids, energy efficiency, politics (all these topics)

Knock, knock. Who's there? Creation care idea is spreading	biodiversivist	21 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Jehovah's Witnesses. Two of them just knocked on my door. I mention it because they had a brochure detailing their version of 'creation care.' I told them I was happy to see more Christian sects beginning to interpret Bible passages in an environmentally positive manner. 'Oh no,' they assured me. 'We aren't environmentalists.'I was fine with that. I don't admit to being an environmentalist outside of the right circles either. I then volunteered the fact that I am ath ...
Topics: hybrids, Religion and Spirituality (all these topics)

Ask a Brokeass: We get around On eco-friendly transport for the not-so-rich	Kate Sheppard	16 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Dear Brokeass, What I'm having the worst issue with is that most of the stuff we do has such a small impact. Recycle, reuse, on and on. I know the biggest place to make an impact is transportation, but the vehicle cost has me down. I'd love a hybrid car, but when you're strapped for cash and you need transportation to get to work/school, used hybrids in the $2,000 range just do not exist. My small town public transit is a travishamockery [Brokeass note: I think th ...
Topics: bikes, biofuels, cars, fuel efficiency, hybrids, Wisconsin (all these topics)

Death by Prius Hybrid cars dangerously quiet for pedestrians	Erik Hoffner	16 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Turns out that it isn't just U.S. automakers that have been put in mortal danger by hybrids (it is their fault, of course): the National Federation of the Blind said this week that those at risk include (gasp) cyclists, the blind, the elderly, and distracted pedestrians. Lay on those horns, people!
Topics: cars, electric vehicles, health, hybrids (all these topics)

The Prius snob strikes back Prius consumes more energy in lifetime than Cherokee	biodiversivist	12 Feb 2007	Gristmill
I thought this article hit a little too close for comfort. If you really want to call yourself an environmentalist, do what my sister-in-law did: Buy a small Toyota hatchback and put 5,000 miles a year on it for two decades.Then there was this interesting article in the Economist discussing the future of diesel cars in America: The dirty little secret about hybrids is that their batteries and extensive use of aluminium parts make them costly to build in energy terms ...
Topics: cars, green living, hybrids, placemaking, Prius (all these topics)

Hybrid Lowdown Toyota will introduce new advertising, incentives for Prius		09 Feb 2007	Daily Grist
Hybrid Lowdown Toyota will introduce new advertising, incentives for Prius To many, the Toyota Prius is synonymous with months-long waiting lists. But just as the automaker has stepped up production on its hybrid darling, sales have plateaued. Fearing that the car lacks mainstream appeal, Toyota is training dealers in Prius sweet talk, hyping incentives like low- and no-interest f ...
Topics: advertising, cars, electric vehicles, hybrids, news, placemaking, Prius (all these topics)

Cleaner by the Dozen Green group produces list of top 12 eco-friendly vehicles		07 Feb 2007	Daily Grist
Cleaner by the Dozen Green group produces list of top 12 eco-friendly vehicles American autos are drowning their sorrows in foreign oil after not making the 2007 Green Book list of the top 12 eco-friendly vehicles, released yesterday by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Honda's natural-gas-powered Civic GX (available only in California and New York) regain ...
Topics: Big Auto, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids, lists, news, Prius (all these topics)

Prius facts to hang your hat on You may be surprised	biodiversivist	20 Jan 2007	Gristmill
I have been reading negative reports about Prius mileage and cost effectiveness for years. Here is one called 'The Hybrid Hoax,' written about a year ago. The author propagates misinformation by referring us to another article written in 2004 by a USA Today reporter (Kiley) who drove a Jetta diesel from Detroit to Washington, D.C., and a Prius back from Washington, D.C. to Detroit: Kiley had to stop to refill the Prius, which ended up averaging 38 miles per gallon, c ...
Topics: cars, electric vehicles, hybrids, Prius (all these topics)

Catch up post: replying to some comments	Gar Lipow	16 Jan 2007	Gristmill
As promised, this is a catch-up post, wherein I belatedly reply to various comments. Ron Steenblik, director of research for Global Subsidies Initiative, said: 'Long distance transmission lines are good because they reduce the need for storage or backup if we use variable sources to generate electricity. (Storage is good, but transmission is almost always cheaper.)' Gar, may I make the friendly suggestion that you qualify that statement. I can recall back in the 19 ...
Topics: consumerism, energy, hybrids, tech, cars, electric vehicles (all these topics)

PHEVs on the Orient Express? Chinese company to make plug-in hybrid	Adam Browning	09 Jan 2007	Gristmill
I've long (at least 6 months anyway) said that the best thing that could happen to jumpstart the production of plug-in hybrids by American car companies would be for a Chinese car company to announce its intentions to build the same. My reasoning? It would be a perfect wedge product into the American market. Where consumers might be skeptical about buying a traditional Chinese car, people would line up to buy a PHEV, provenance notwithstanding, because they got no p ...
Topics: business, cars, China, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics)

Happy Feat GM unveils plug-in hybrid at Detroit car show, sticks out tongue at greens		08 Jan 2007	Daily Grist
Happy Feat GM unveils plug-in hybrid at Detroit car show, sticks out tongue at greens The media got a peek at Detroit's North American International Auto Show yesterday, and manufacturers had a surprise in store: cars so green they could play hide-and-seek in a cornfield. The biggest buzz surrounded the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid from General Motors, long vilified for yanking its original ...
Topics: business, cars, electric vehicles, hybrids, news, placemaking (all these topics)

My predictions Guaranteed true, top to bottom!	biodiversivist	02 Jan 2007	Gristmill
In 2007: Prius sales will peak and begin a slow decline as consumers anticipate 2008 models from competitors that will have similar or better performance and therefore higher status. Electric hybrid bikes will become increasingly popular as a commuting tool thanks to improved battery technology. The SUV fad will continue to fade. The corn ethanol pyramid scheme will continue to play out based on the canard that the use of environmentally destructive biofuels i ...
Topics: electric vehicles, hybrids, Prius, green living, lists, biofuels, environmental justice (all these topics)

Biodee's big adventure Electric bike triumphs and travails	biodiversivist	15 Dec 2006	Gristmill
Rode my bike to jury duty last Wednesday. It was pouring rain and the winds were gusting into the 50s. I had my trailer hitched up because I was hauling a laptop, magazines, and a battery charger with me. I don't think I could have done this without the electric motor. However, at one point, a gust -- accelerated by the venturi effect of two skyscrapers -- stopped me cold. I jumped off and cowered in a nook where I found another guy hiding with the remains of his umbr ...
Topics: bikes, cars, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, hybrids (all these topics)

Top ten breakthroughs that could help cool the greenhouse Read and be dazzled by the techno-futurism	Gar Lipow	12 Dec 2006	Gristmill
David asked contributors for end-of-year lists. Since I normally focus on conservative assumptions, I thought I'd use it as an excuse to look at future breakthroughs and cost improvements. I was going to weasel by calling these "possibilities," but instead I decided to use the time-tested technique of public psychics: I'll call them predictions, crow over any that come true, and pretend the rest never happened. 1. Power storage that will make electric cars ...
Topics: cars, climate change adaptation, electric vehicles, energy, energy efficiency, hybrids, solar voltaic power, wind power (all these topics)

Plug-in hybrids: Lots of room Hybrids connected to the electrical grid could change the energy game	John McGrath	12 Dec 2006	Gristmill
The U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that the existing U.S. electrical grid -- without additional construction for generation or transmission -- could accommodate 180 million cars that draw their power from night-time (off-peak) electricity. That's about 85% of the cars in the country. The full report is not yet available, but based on the press release, there's lots of good news -- with some bad news mixed in. First, the good news: aside from dramaticall ...
Topics: electric vehicles, cars, hybrids (all these topics)

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