AT&T to Make Major Investment in Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles
AT&T announced on Wednesday that it would be deploying around 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles over the next 10 years. AT&T plans to spend $565 million total, with $350 million of it devoted to purchasing about 8,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. This will make AT&T the single largest corporate user of CNG vehicles in the world.
T. Boone Pickens, who has been advocating a transformative shift from oil to natural gas for commercial cars and trucks, and also owns Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which is the largest provider of CNG for transportation in the North America, exclaimed, “I believe this is going to be a big momentum play. When other fleet operators put their transportation teams on this, you’re going to see a major shift away from imported diesel and onto domestic natural gas.”
U.S. Takes Baby Steps While Oil Price Spike on the Horizon
It has been about three years since gas prices jumped over $3 during the most recent spike, yet we seem no less materially dependent on this volatile, polluting, and corrupting resource today than we were before the price run-up.
Underlining the idiocy of our failure to take transformative action, the International Energy Agency warned on Monday that there could be another oil supply crunch beginning in 2010 if the global economy recovers. Yes, this is about as insightful as noting the ’sky is blue,’ but given the little baby steps we are taking on this issue, it seems even awareness of the obvious isn’t enough to motivate the American public to fundamentally change.
While the IEA’s solution to the problem is, of course, to increase capital investment in oil production, real change will only occur when we fundamentally change the way we live and power our transportation needs. Nothing less than a big tax on gasoline, coupled with massive investment in public transportation, urban planning, and alternative fuels research, is what is needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we may need the shock of another price spike before we make these hard choices.
Detroit Should Support Obama’s Efficiency and Emissions Laws (But They Won’t)
Not surprisingly, automotive industry groups expressed opposition on Monday to President Obama’s plan to increase vehicle efficiency laws at both the state and federal levels. The opposition was generally expressed in the standard “this is too costly” language, with a dose of “in these harsh economic times” thrown in for good measure.
But we’ve heard this a thousand times before. Of course it is costly to meet new efficiency standards, and of course times are especially difficult right now. But given that automakers always warn that regulations will put them out of business and cost jobs, they have questionable credibility in this debate. READ MORE
All New Cars in CA Have Environmental Impact Labels
As of January 1, every 2009 model year and newer car sold in California now carries a label that ranks that vehicle’s environmental impact. The label can be found under the hood on the emissions control information label. There are two rankings (global warming score and smog score) on a scale from 1 to 10, with five being the average score in the state. The more environmentally friendly a car is, the higher the ranking.
Check out this link to see the top 10 cleanest cars.
Intel to manufacture advanced batteries for electric vehicles?
We firmly believe that Detroit and America cannot go green without advancements in battery technology. Any electric vehicle network must be built upon advanced battery technologies, and as we’ve noted before, if the current state of laptop and cell phone batteries are any indication, we’ve still got a long way to go.
However, not only do we need advancements in battery technology, we also need to build a domestic battery industry. It is not a great strategy to trade one foreign dependency (oil) for another (batteries). Right now, “virtually all advanced nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium ion (Li-ion) production is done overseas, mainly in China, Japan and Korea.” READ MORE
Could the ‘Air Car’ be a legitimate alternative vehicle?
At first blush, the Air Car, manufactured by MDI, looks like it could be a great alternative fuel vehicle. This is because it runs on nothing more than compressed air, can travel up to 125 miles at around 70 mph, and could cost less than $5,000.
And while the Air Car may eventually prove to be a viable product, there are numerous downsides, including:
The compressed air is very cold and requires a heat exchanger to warm it up. However, even with the exchanger, in cold climates it could still freeze up;
The refueling of the compressed air container can take up to 4 hours at home. While specialized equipment at service stations could fill the tank in as little as 3 minutes, this would create extreme heat in the tank, which would have to be cooled simultaneously, similar to filling a SCUBA tank; READ MORE
Billions spent by federal government on alternative fuel cars with little to show
Not surprisingly, a federal government program to invest in alternative fuel vehicles has been less than successful and has produced some significant unintended consequences.
Under the federal EPAct, for the past 16 years, federal agencies have invested billions of dollars to build-up a fleet of 112,000 alternative fuel vehicles. However, the positive effects of this policy have been limited, if not negated by the real world implementation of the program.
Of the thousands of alternative fuel vehicles purchased by the feds in recent years, 92% of them still run on standard gasoline. This is because many of these vehicles have been sent to locations that are hundreds of miles away from any alternative fueling stations.
Not only that, but a lot of the alternative fuel vehicles that are built today come standard with engines that are larger than the ones they replaced in the fleet. As a result, these new vehicles actually consume more gasoline and emit more greenhouse gases than the cars they replaced. READ MORE
Iowa senators and ethanol industry want piece of auto bailout: Is Iowa the new Detroit?
With the automakers on the ropes, and the government getting ready to write a big check, and possibly attach some strings to it, the ethanol industry wants to make sure that they are at the end of those strings.
Of course, merely trying to attach efficiency requirements to any bailout of Detroit is not inherently wrong. In fact, if we do bailout the automakers, there should absolutely be a strict commitment that they must make their cars significantly more fuel efficient going forward.
However, with that said, what the ethanol industry and their local senators are trying to do is just more of the same behavior that got the auto industry into the situation they face today. That is, government policy being influenced by self-interested commercial industry groups that are supported by hometown politicians. READ MORE
IEA warns of even bigger energy crisis to come
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released the full version of the summary report it put out last week. In it, the IEA reiterated its warning that shrinking global oil development stemming from the credit crunch and lower price of oil, is setting up the conditions for another supply shortage in the coming years. READ MORE
Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, is a big supporter of natural gas
While electric vehicles running off of a clean national electricity grid would be the ideal response to carbon emissions from cars, it is unclear to us whether battery technology has developed enough to support this shift. As we’ve noted before, anyone who has experienced frustration with their laptop or cell phone battery dying after minimal use has first-hand experience regarding the current state of battery technology. READ MORE
California consumes 3rd most oil in world, yet has only lukewarm support for increased drilling
The debate over whether to lift the federal ban on offshore drilling has been heating up lately. Looking at this issue, an LA Times columnist noted this week that California is guilty of hypocrisy and NIMBYism over its relatively tepid support for lifting the ban. This is because California, as an entity, is the third biggest consumer of petroleum in the world, behind only the United States and China.
While California is one of the biggest petroleum producers in the U.S. (behind Texas and Alaska), the state still produces only 39% of the oil that it consumes. Apparently, a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, indicates that only 51% of California voters support increased offshore drilling.
It seems to us that the major disconnect between many of Californians’ opposition to offshore drilling and their embrace of a car-centric lifestyle stems from the lack of a real alternative to petro-fueled cars. While, there are some extreme examples of NIMBYs wanting their green cake and eating it too, many Californians are leading the push to get off oil. For example, California has the highest percentage of hybrid owners in the country, and the entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are leading the push to implement clean technology in transportation.
However, with that said, the reality of the world today is that gas is still the overwhelmingly primary means by which cars are powered. The status quo of widespread reliance on petro-fueled cars and no increased drilling is not maintainable. Yet, it is this very fact, and the financial pain that it is causing right now, that we should use as inspiration to make a dramatic shift off of oil, instead of acquiescing to the current political winds.
Tesla Motors’ picks up industry vet, hopefully a sign of strong faith in company
Coming on the heels of Tesla Motors’ decision that they will build their new electric sedan in California, this non-traditional automaker announced the hiring of former Chrysler VP of Product Development, Mike Donoughe. The hiring of Donoughe, who will be the VP of Vehicle Engineering and Manufacturing, hopefully indicates a general belief by auto industry veterans that Tesla Motors’ future is bright. Those veterans, who are highly experienced in the industry, hopefully see Tesla as a real threat to the existing model and may be looking to hop on board.
According to Donoughe, “I joined the Tesla team because I am enthusiastic about Tesla’s objective to integrate their disruptive EV technology into mainstream automobiles. Tesla is creating vehicles that appeal to customers looking for environmentally sound and energy efficient solutions without compromising on functionality and performance. I look forward to contributing to these efforts as a part of the Tesla team.”
The Pickens Plan 101
The more we learn about the Pickens Plan, the more we are impressed. The video clip above is of Pickens giving a quick 5 minute overview of our oil problem and his proposed solution. The crux of that solution is to replace the 22% of the energy that is currently being generated through the burning of natural gas with energy produced from the high wind corridor that sits in the middle of America. That natural gas resource would then be transfered to power automobiles, thereby dramatically reducing our consumption of oil.
According to Pickens, the key to this plan’s success will be having the right leadership, and having the ability to get the entire country on board and to “march in the same direction.” It seems to us that Pickens has provided us the answer, whether we implement it is now up to us and the leaders we choose.
Post Office seeks ways to save on fuel costs
The largest operator of a civilian vehicle fleet in the country, the US Postal Service is really feeling the effects of increased gasoline prices. According to the Deputy Postmaster General, the USPS spent $1.7 billion on gasoline and diesel last year, and predicts that number to increase by $600 million this year. As a result, the USPS, which uses 200,000 trucks has been forced to look for alternative means of reducing fuel consumption–some of which have been successful, some of which, not so much.
One strategy, which has not proven very effective, was the purchase of 30,000 alternative fuel vehicles, including flex-fuel (E85), CNG and biodiesel trucks. In particular, the flex-fuel trucks saw a decrease in fuel efficiency by 29% and ended up consuming 1.5 million more gallons of gasoline than before.
Some more effective solutions have included realigning routes so drivers don’t have to make left turns (which require more idling), adding GPS systems to plot more efficient delivery routes and, the most effective solution: having employees deliver more of their route by foot.
GM increases its investment in ethanol
Last week GM announced that they were investing in a second company that develops technology for ethanol production. Apparently this is an attempt by GM to hedge its bets on how to most efficiently produce non-grain based ethanol. This type of biofuel, known as cellulose, requires a complicated final process to convert the material’s sugar into alcohol, which can be burned by engines. The company that GM invested in uses a process different than that which GM has previously pursued. This alternative process requires no use of chemicals, and instead relies on heat and mechanical action to convert the material to alcohol.
It is unclear to us whether this process releases fewer greenhouse gasses during the manufacturing process, an issue which has been of great concern lately. While it is encouraging to see GM invest in a technology that is forward thinking, it is unclear whether this process will ultimately help the environment, or if it is instead, an attempt to fulfill the mandates of the federal government on biofuel usage. [Note, this link is to an organization that “speaks for the petrochemical and refining industries on issues important to their business.”]
