What’s up at UPS, the United Parcel Service, regarding going green?  Well the latest news from the company that likes to be know as “Brown” announced their order for the first 7 “Hydralic Hybrid” delivery trucks.  The “Hydralic Hybrid” stores power by pressurizing hydralic fluid, instead of sending electricity to a bank of batteries.  The early testing in metro Detroit have shown that these trucks can reduce fuel usage by 45 to 50% and CO2 emissions by 30%, when compared to conventional diesel engines. 

This new technology began development October 2001 a R&D project between Eaton Corp and the US EPA laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The vehicles that are delivered to UPS will be powered by a high efficiency diesel engine that periodically recharges pressure in the hydraulic store, rather than sending power to the wheels.  This technology is seen as a cost savings solution for large trucks, a way to reduce oil use and a way to reduce CO2 emissions from large vehicles.  It is estimated the the fuel savings will pay for the cost of this solution within 3 years.

The vehicles are being built by Navistar, using the Eaton technology.  Navistar’s participation is based on their ability to offer their customers “performance and reduced emissions with dramatic improvements in fuel economy,” said Steve Guillaume, Navistar General Manager, Medium Trucks.  UPS expects to take delivery of these vehicle in 2009 and 2010.  UPS noted in their press release that they are already the largest “green fleet” or more than 1600 vehicles growing to 2100 as the company ads another 600 vehicles this year.

Eaton’s press release:

http://www.eaton.com/EatonCom/OurCompany/NewsandEvents/CT_190984

UPS’ press release:

http://www.ups.com/pressroom/us/press_releases/press_release/0,0,5052,00.html

If you watch television you’ve seen the ads with oilman Boone Pickens promoting switching our vehicles to run on natural gas/renewable fuels.  If not, the plan is based on 1 fundamental point: that relying on foreign oil is dangerous to the US economy and it’s position in the world.  In short, we should switch to natural guess to power vehicles instead of using oil.  The plan itself is under attack for substituting one carbon based fuel for another, when CO2 levels need to be reduced.  Further the is under attack because it’s creator/backer, 80 year old oilman T. Boone Pickens, has substantial investments in the various components of the plan.

The Good

The plan is about reducing dependence on oil and the transfer of wealth from the US to oil producing countries.  Keeping our energy spend at/near home is something that i support with my environmental, nationalist and capitalist values.  Environmentally the plan calls on substituting natural gas for gasoline that is mainly made from imported oil and substituting the electricity that is generated by natural gas, with wind power. This is a net gain for the environment. First, natural gas generates 30%+ less CO2, per mile than gasoline.  Further switching to wind from natural gas power plants eliminates the emissions from 16%+ of the power generation and about 11% of overall emissions for electrical generation (nat gas generates 33% of the CO2 of coal plants) due to it’s cleaner burn.

The Bad

The Pickens’ Plan encourage changing the entire US truck fleet to natural gas, since trucks use 25% of all gasoline.  Pickens owns Clean Energy Fuels corp. a company that runs natural gas filling stations.  Pickens’ plan calls for wind power to replace natural gas generated power, to make the fuel available for transportation.  Pickens has ordered over $2 Billion worth of wind turbines to help produce that electricity.  The plan calls for the government allow emergency use of eminent domain to create right of ways for high voltage links between wind farms and electric users; Pickens is seeking to have power lines built to his wind farm.  While the plan may help the country, it is Pickens, more than any other individual, who will benefit from his plan.

The Ugly

Boone Pickens has been around for years and has acquired a number of friends and enemies.  Many enemies in the environmental movement base their stand on the effects of his business on the environment.  We all know about the environmental issues of an oil based economy and as a the ultimate Texas wildcatter, Mr. Pickens has made his fortune(and lost it and made it back) in the Oil and Gas industry.  More recently, Mr. Pickens has acquired the majority of water rights, for his Mesa Water, in his county in texas and intends to pump ground water for sale to Dallas, which is over 200 miles away.  Not only does he intend to pump water to sell, he intends to do so at a rate which empty the aquifer in 20 to 30 years.  In June he manage to get his ranch declared a public water district which gives him considerable power in using eminent domain to take property need for his 200+ mile pipeline.  Finally is you are a democrat and/or some one angry over the Swift Boat ads directed at John Kerry in 2004, it was Boone Pickens that spent over $7 million to bankroll the activity.

The Conclusion?

I think it’s a good idea to switch transportation to natural gas, from oil, but to put a bunch of government subsidies to make this switch when we are just a few years from plug-in rechargeables with reasonable cost and range isn’t wise.  Better we should subsidize, non-carbon technology with government money or tax credits.

Anthony Rubenstein discusses the plan and California Prop 10 at his site www.AnthonyRubenstein

I’ve been shocked by a recent Toyota commercial airing on Canadian TV. The ad, basically is trumpeting Toyota’s green credentials.  As in all Toyota commercials these days, it features their Hybrid vehicles and technology.  I wrote about the amazing cost of the CO2 displaced by a Toyota hybrid here: http://sunpowereddreams.com/2008/08/17/the-hybrid-hype-overpaying-for-co2/.  What shocked me was a statement at the end of this commercial - “Our goal? A car that actually cleans the air..”

Well it’s certainly a bold promise for a company that still doesn’t have an all electric vehicle.  What’s even funnier than the statement itself, is that Toyota USA is advertising about “striving for” zero emmissions and zero waste.  Frankly the Canadian ad reeks of an ad agency gone overboard.  What’s next? A car that prevents you from aging, or that cooks lunch?  Why would you put this “pipe dream” into your ad? It might not be green washing  but it’s way past a rational goal and very much on the way to the utopian thinking.

I think it’s way too much for a car company that still runs on the internal combustion engine.

Well they didn’t call me “Little Miss Sunshine” or link to any of my sites, but:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/05/AR2008100502518_2.html

“People still come to the site, but where you used to get people signing up [for offsets] every day, now you’d be lucky to get a few people a week,” said Fred Weiss, a small-time offset seller based in Ann Arbor, Mich., who sends customers stickers that say, “Carbon Neutral Vehicle.” Apparently that isn’t as important now.

“Who cares about the environment? Am I going to have a house next week?” he imagined would-be customers saying.

Not much, but at least they quoted me correctly and spelled my name right.

I recently had to the opportunity to be locked in an internet free location for a day or two which resulted in a lot more thinking than i would admit to.  A few thoughts came thru that were directly related to this blog and the Carbon Offsets business that i run.

First i’ve been worried about this “collapse” of the financial system due to bad mortgages for years and while i imagined this would happen, i guess i never believed it would get this bad, let alone the possibility that it could become even worse. 

Much as we’ve seen in the commodities market recently, there has sharp drop in carbon offset prices.  In the US carbon offset markets, these offsets have dropped in price from about $2.25 a ton in january to about $1.80 today.  That doesn’t sound too surprising or devastating, until i mention that during that time the price peaked at just under $7.50 a ton during the months in between.   While i’m sure this affects many carbon offsetters, we’re small enough and new enough that we can only benefit by these reduced cost of offsets.  The real story here isn’t the cost of the offsets, or the reason for the great swings in value. 

The real story is that Global Warming was controlling the mindspace of American consumers and voters in January and February and is all but an afterthought today.  The shift in society’s focus away from global warming to “Drill, Drill, Drill” (thank you larry kudlow) was prompted, not surprisingly by oil skyrocketing over $100 a barrel right to $150.  Nobody who is trying to afford the SUV they drive to work, doesn’t care about the earth getting hotter, because the night sweats are increasingly chilled as we worry about keeping our jobs, homes and feeding our families.  Unfortunately, much like the entreprenuers who burn the forest of brasil to grow soybeans, our thoughts toward the future have focused on the next few weeks instead of the next 10-20 years.  Until that focus shifts, complicated/abstract ideas like carbon offsets, will be of less interest than green actions that help to save money.  The next few years green needs to focus on helping the family budget to help change the world.

If you’ve been watching the talking heads on TV, not only will hybrid autos and trucks help solve the problems of foreign oil but free of from the grips of global warming.  Politicians, business leaders and even environmentalists have joined together to sing the praises of Hybrid technology.  But it’s all a big lie!

Read for yourself on Toyota’s website:               http://www.toyota.com/about/news/product/2008/05/15-1-prius.html

I was watching the Olympics and heard/saw a Toyota ad saying they have sold and shipped over 1 million hybrids and reduced CO2 emissions by 4.5 Million tons.  According to my results at the Toyota “Build Your Own” site, the hybrid 2009 Camry is $26,569 while the base 4 cylinder gas model is: $19,640.  That is nearly a $7000 difference per car, for a 4.5 ton reduction of CO2 emmissions.  The simple point is that a hybrid cost of over $1,500 per ton of reduced CO2.  The market price of UN Certified Carbon offsets, in London (the most expensive offsets Dec 2013, required by law in EU) closed on August 15, 2008 at: $44, while US voluntary offset credits which sell for $3.80 a ton. 

If you do the math on the hybrid you are buying to fight global warming, you’ll see you are over paying.  In fact, you are paying 34 times more than the highest CO2 price in Europe and nearly 400 times the cost of the of CO2 in the US market for each ton not emitted by your hybrid.  Now i’m assuming that the car itself does emit much less CO2, but that Toyota also accounted for the CO2 that went into building the hybrids, which is an honest representation.  This doesn’t necessarily mean “Don’t buy a hybrid”, it means don’t buy a hybrid to fight global warming, it’s way too expensive

What would $7000 buy? A 1 kilowatt Solar cell system for your home, installed.  That’s about $5000 of cells and a $2000 for tying into grid.  if that system generated 1 kw just 4 hours a day (about 1500 kwh a year) you save 1.5 tons of CO2 (1 ton per megawatt of coal generated electricity) each year of about twice what the Prius saves over a 5 to 7 year lifetime of the car. Meanwhile solar panels have an expected lifetime of 20 to 30 years.

Buy solar power, a windmill or an electric car if you want to fight global warming and leave the hybrid for those who can’t do the math.

Platinum Substitute Makes Cheaper Fuel Cell Possible
Scientists in Australia have invented an alternative to the costly platinum that is used in the cathodes of fuel cells. Because platinum is responsible for most of the cost of the fuel cells - to the tune of up to $4,000 - this is a major breakthrough.

The conducting polymer is also much more effective and less affected by carbon dioxide and clumping. More …
New Storage Techniques Make Alternative Energy More Viable
One of the major problems with solar and wind energy is that it doesn’t work when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. New ways of storing this energy may solve that problem and make alternative energy much more practical and available.

Using a hydrolyzer to convert electricity into hydrogen and then using an electrolyzer to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen may soon be done at normal temperatures and pressures, unlike current more costly and complicated methods which demand high temperatures and pressures. More …

First Wind Goes Public To Raise Funds
Shares of up to $450 million will be offered on the public market, as First Wind tries to pay down debt and raise capital for major projects. They have several contracts to fulfill, including a lab in Hawaii for the US Dept of Energy to research the feasibility of wind integration into the utility system there.

By 2013, the company plans to have 2,300 MW of operating capacity online. More …

Cathedral Joins Solar Revolution in San Francisco
Homes, factories and businesses are all turning to alternative energy, but now houses of worship are joining the Green revolution. Grace Cathedral in downtown San Francisco will install solar panels from Solar City. The project will be financed by the cathedral and PG&E and should be finished later on this year.

The city’s mayor announced the project on in a ceremony in mid July and hailed it as one more step in the California city’s goal of becoming the greenest city in the country. More …

New Wind Turbine Plant Creates Jobs
The US, which increased its wind generating capacity by 45% last year, will be the site of a new factory that will turn out more wind turbines and create about 350 new jobs in 3-4 years. While America is the fastest growing windpower market in the world, the new plant is sorely needed.

The new plant will be built in Illionois by Siemens, the company which produces more gear drives for wind turbines than any other company. More …

Ecotricity Builds Wind Turbines for Lotus Auto Maker
Construction will soon start on three wind turbines at the Lotus car company’s factory in Hethel, England. Ecotricity received approval for the project which will power the entire auto plant.

Better yet, there will be excess electricity available - enough to power about 1,000 nearby homes. And even better, the turbines will be pollution-free. More …

A New Alternative to Corn Ethanol Shows Promise
Miscanthus, a giant perennial grass, might be one answer to the food vs fuel question. While ethanol is a good idea for cutting greenhouse gases, its production often reduces food crops and takes valuable cropland away from other uses.

Now, scientists are conducting a field trial to prove their theory that Miscanthus could change that by offsetting 20% of the gas we use to fuel cars while using only 9.3% of precious agricultural land. More …

Entrepeneur Bypasses Big Automakers With Affordable Electric Car
Philadelphia steel magnate Barry D. Bernsten is tired of waiting for GM, Ford or one of the other major automakers to come up with an electric car that most people could afford. So, he’s come up with a way to retrofit 4,000 cars with batteries and electric motors and sell them for around $15,000.

While the cars will be low-speed, low-range EVs, Bernsten says that he’ll be introducing a highway model with a longer range sometime next year. More …

Solar Powered Tour Spreads the Word on Solar Power
Louis Palmer, a Swiss schoolteacher, fervently believes that alternative energy, especially solar power, can be power the world and stop global warming. To prove it, he’s bringing his message around the world on a 55,000 km tour with his “solar taxi”.

His two seater tows a large trailer filled with solar panels and he boasts that he hasn’t paid a cent for gasoline even after driving two-thirds of the way around the world! More …

Billionaire Investor Backs Wind Energy In a Big Way
Philip Anschutz, the Colorado billionaire, is adding to his conventional investments in oil and gas with wind energy. He’s planning to construct a 100,000 acre wind farm in Wyoming to bring 2,000 MW of energy 900 miles to California, Nevada and Arizona.

The ambitious project will be the first foray into alternative energy for Anschutz, who feels that “it’s just a natural thing for a broad-based energy company…to be invested in alternative sources of clean energy”. 

Solar On the Brink of Dominating Power Production
So says Jon Luoma in Yale Environment 360, a publication of Yale University. Way back in 1931, Thomas Edison said that he’d put his money on solar as a source of power.

Apparently, Edison was right, because in spite of its small footprint as far as current power production goes, solar is gaining momentum with mainstream planners and producers. This is almost certainly a trend that will explode into the forefront of power generation as time goes on. More …

Wind Powered Ships Make a Return
A shipment of French wine was delivered to Ireland by a wind-powered ship for the first time in many years. If the company that delivered it has its way, however, it’s only the first of many deliveries that will come into port on clean wind power rather than under the power of polluting diesel engines.

Because 90% of the world’s goods are delivered by ship, using alternative energy such as wind power instead of diesel in as many as possible would make a huge difference in the rate of global warming and also reduce pollution. More …

Paying for Reforestation Could Be Feasible
If wealthy nations were willing to pony up a billion dollars annually, the rate of deforestation in tropical rainforests could be halted, or at least slowed appreciably. In addition, about half a million metric tons of CO2 would be eliminated.

Whether the wealthy nations of the world will participate in such a program may make the difference between the survival or death of rainforests and old growth forests in many parts of the world. More …

Germany On Top With Solar Thanks to Subsidies
The German government is determined to boost the country’s solar power generation and is using generous subsidies to encourage its citizens to install rooftop solar. So far, even in this not-so-sunny country, solar is still king.

While it leads the world in solar power generation, many wonder if that will continue if and when German leaders reduce the incentives they’ve been using to promote solar power. More …

Green Travel Is Now Easier With Google Maps
Everyone uses Google Maps to get driving directions, but what if you’re trying to reduce your carbon footprint by walking as many places as possible? Well, now you can still get directions from Google and be eco-friendly too.

Google Maps now provides walking routes for those who would rather use their feet than their cars. Just one more indication that Green is going mainstream. More …

First US Community to Be Powered Completely By Wind
Rockport, Missouri is small with a population of only 1,300. This doesn’t detract from the fact that it now receives all of its electricity from wind power. Four turbines, part of a group of 75 installed in 3 counties, provide all the power that Rockport needs for its homes and businesses.

The townspeople were pleasantly surprised to find that there are two other side-benefits from the windpower project. The windpower provider pays hefty taxes to the town and landowners can lease their land for wind turbine use. Truly a win-win situation for the town and the environment. More …

Climate Change Toll Would Mean Billions Lost for States
A new study has determined the projected loss in dollars for several states, according to the Center for Integrative Environmental Research. The University of Maryland group which studied the impace of climate change on the US as a whole last year, studied the effect of rising oceans levels, loss of tourism, drought and other factors in the study.

The states studied were Ohio, Georgia, Kansas, Illinois, Colorado, Nevada, New Jersey and Michigan. The western states, especially, will almost certainly suffer from drought  which will have a drastic effect on the states’ inhabitants and tourism. More …

California to Offer Low Cost Loans for Solar, Energy Efficiency
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put his signature on a bill that will allow cities to loan money to small businesses and homes so that they can install solar panels for electricity and hot water. The loans can also be used to improve energy efficiency by upgrading air conditioners or windows.

Paying back the loans would be integrated with residents’ utility or property tax payments, which would make it a seamless process and easier to administer for the cities. More …

Canada’s Oktok Solar Community A Role Model
With solar panels on almost every garage, this community is able to provide hot water, electricity and heat even in the coldest days of the Canadian winter. Geothermal storage of the day’s solar heat is the reason and it’s showing how well solar works even in cold climates.

With ingenuity and a system of storage for future use, solar energy can be a viable option for almost any climate. More …

US Schools Are Going Green
School administrators are changing their views from thinking that they can’t afford to green their schools to realizing that they can’t afford not to. With energy costs rising daily, heating, cooling and providing water for schools is getting almost impossible with traditional methods.

That’s why, especially when they construct new schools, the bottom line is starting to include things like geothermal heating systems, solar panels and even waterless urinals. More …