Slowly but surely, the use of natural gas as a substitute for gasoline in our cars is climbing. The graph shows a 33% increase over the past seven years. However the trend may be about to accelerate. T. Boone Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels is having success building a “CNG Highway” across the country, aimed mostly at heavy-duty trucks.
“When it comes to protecting the environment and addressing climate change, America has a lot of work ahead of it,” former President Jimmy Carter said in Aspen on Tuesday.
Over the past five days, average retail gasoline prices have risen more than four cents per gallon in Oklahoma and even more dramatically in eight other Heartland states. Since the end of July, pump prices have jumped 13 cents in Ohio and 11 cents in both Indiana and Michigan. These increases can be traced back to refinery problems and maintenance issues at several facilities supplying the region: two in Kansas (HollyFrontier in El Dorado and the CVR plant in Coffeyville), BP’s refinery in Whiting, Ind., and ExxonMobil’s facility in Joliet, Ill.
U.S. refiners will refrain from buying more Kurdish crude oil until a long-running dispute between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan is settled, while Washington urges both sides to set aside their differences and helps them tackle Sunni militants.
Fuel Freedom Foundation announced that Sheryl WuDunn, the first Asian-American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of China for The New York Times, will be joining the foundation’s advisory board.
Various types of electric cars are gaining popularity all over the world as the next generation of eco-friendly vehicles. The key to the electric car’s commercial success is innovation in battery development, which is why major South Korean companies such as Samsung SDI and LG Chem are at the forefront of global efforts to develop high-capacity batteries for electric cars
In 2011, several organizers looking to promote electric cars started National Plug-In Day–but apparently one day is no longer enough to contain no longer enough to contain advocates’ enthusiasm for electric cars. National Drive Electric Week will take place September 15 to 21, with 113 events already scheduled in dozens of cities across the U.S. and Canada.
Chicago City Council’s finance committee took a no vote on a proposed rule that would force city fuel retailers to sell E15 – a gasoline blend containing 15% ethanol.
An annual report on Brazil’s biofuel sector has been filed with the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service’s Global Agricultural Information Network, predicting Brazilian ethanol production will increase 5 percent next year, reaching a total of 26.9 billion liters (7.11 billion gallons). Ethanol exports are expected to increase 200 million liters next year, reaching 1.8 billion liters.
natural gastransportation fuel of the future. Michigan-based Crazy Diamond Performance certainly thinks so, offering one of Chevy’s most popular sedans with an affordable CNG conversion reports Green Fleet Magazine.
