Cool Stuff at the Alt Car Expo

The Alt Car Expo this year was very similar to last year with a few notable exceptions. A lot more options in electric vehicles. Here are a few things that were cool:

- Electric bikes, scooters and motorcycles. These were there last year, but this year there were more of them! The Danish Trio Bike made its debut. Although it's not electric, it is designed with a carrier that can be used for anything from groceries to kids.

- Electric Cars. More of them than last year. I was intrigued with Electric Blue out of Arizona that is converting Chevy trucks and SUVs to all electric vehicles. As the guy said to me, if people want big cars, give them big cars that don't pollute. And of course, the GM Volt was there. I couldn't resist telling the rep what I thought of their chairman for both denying global warming and for making fun of women that care about the environment.

- Better World Club was there. It's like AAA but without the shilling for the oil lobby and with bike roadside assistance.

- DriveHealthy.com has tips for getting maximum mpgs from your car.

- RideAmigos is a New York City ride sharing service that is coming to Los Angeles. 

Green Check Up for Your Car

With fuel prices and the economy being what they are, it's a good time to make sure that you are maximizing your gas mileage.

National Automobile Dealers Association and the EPA are working with dealerships to provide free green check ups for your car. Here is what they recommend to maximize performance and fuel economy:

1. Motor oil. Top off and change oil as necessary with manufacturer-recommended grade, “energy conserving” motor oils. Doing so can improve fuel economy by up to 2 percent, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Replacing conventional oils with synthetics may offer even greater fuel economy benefits.
 
2. Air filters. Make sure you change your air filter at the end of its recommended lifespan. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve a vehicle’s gas mileage by up to 10 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

3. Engine performance. Enhance fuel economy performance by having engines tuned and spark plugs replaced according to the manufacturer’s recommended schedule. A single misfiring spark plug can cut fuel economy by up to 4 percent, according to the EPA.

4. Brakes. Improperly maintained brakes can result in unwanted drag. This unnecessary resistance can have the same effect as driving with your foot on the brake pedal: a dramatic drop in fuel economy.

5. Warning lights for “Service Engine Soon” or “Check Engine.” Ignoring these indicators may result in poor fuel economy performance and require expensive repairs. For example, a warning light may indicate a faulty oxygen sensor is sending more fuel to the engine than necessary, which can result in a 40-percent fuel economy decline. A warning light could also indicate a faulty thermostat, which can prevent a cold engine from reaching its normal operating temperature, resulting in the unnecessary injection of fuel.

6. Tire wear. Replacing worn tires with a manufacturer-recommended size and style can save hundreds of dollars a year. To improve fuel economy performance, consider low rolling-resistance replacement tires.

7. Tire inflation pressure. Keeping tires inflated to at least the manufacturer-recommended pressure can improve fuel economy by up to 3 percent, according to the EPA. Under-inflated tires require more energy to roll, meaning more fill-ups.

8. Unnecessary items that add weight to the vehicle. Unnecessary weight lowers fuel economy; remove heavy items from your trunk and back seat.

9. Evaporative emission controls. Poorly operating evaporative emission controls can fail to capture gasoline vapors and recycle them to the fuel tank. Faulty controls waste gas and degrade air quality.

10. Transmission. Properly operating modern transmissions and drive components are critical to vehicle fuel economy performance. Routinely check proper fluid levels and system operation.

Sierra Club Looks at McCain/Palin on the Environment

We are going to be talking politics here at Going Green for the next few weeks. Why? Because we can't get to where we need to be on the environment through personal action alone. We need policy change and that requires leadership. Here are some tidbits from our friends at Sierra Club titled quite starkly; The Facts About Sarah Palin and John McCain

Controversy has swirled around the record of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin ever since John McCain named her to the Republican ticket.  

Given her short but highly controversial record as governor, the growing controversy over these important issues comes as no surprise to the Sierra Club.  Numerous battles with Palin and her administration have made it clear to our members in Alaska and elsewhere that she is not a maverick, but rather just another Alaska politician with close ties to Big Oil and other special interests who is on the wrong side of many issues critical to America’s future

In the face of growing scrutiny, it is clear that much of the record presented by the McCain campaign is either misleading or an outright lie.  .

Sarah Palin doesn’t believe in man--made global warming, McCain campaign says it doesn’t matter.

Palin recently stated: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location," Palin said, adding, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man--made." (Newsmax, 08/29/2008)  She also has said "I'm not an Al Gore doom--and--gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity." (Fairbanks News--Miner, 12/04/07)
 
The campaign responded by saying that "You don’t expect the running mates to agree on every single issue."  This flip response is yet another troubling sign that tackling global warming is simply no longer a priority for John McCain----either now or should he and Sarah Palin be elected.

Palin continues to support construction of the "On--ramp to Nowhere" on Gravina Island.

Either through accident or insult, a separate earmark for approximately $24 million for the Gravina Island access road to the Bridge to Nowhere was allowed to remain.  Yet, instead of canceling a three--mile long road to an empty beach, the Palin Administration has continued to construct an On--ramp to Nowhere.  Once again, Palin could’ve chosen to cancel the project and return the money to the federal treasury.  The Heritage Foundation opined: "If she returned the federal money, Palin would be signaling to the rest of the country that, under her administration, Alaska will carefully handle taxpayer dollars responsibly."

Palin, of course, did not cancel the project or send the money back and construction of the road continues.  

Palin has called for a "mutually beneficial" relationship with Big Oil.

Palin recently outlined her views on the proper relationship between Big Oil and the government: "When I look every day, the big oil company's building is right out there next to me, and it's quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry." (Roll Call, 08/25/08)

While McCain--Palin campaign ads claim that they are reformers who will take on Big Oil, Tom Friedman of the New York Times wrote last week that "Palin’s much ballyhooed confrontations with the oil industry have all been about who should get more of the windfall profits, not how to end our addiction."

Palin is also one of the biggest proponents of drilling off our coasts and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, something even the Bush administration admits would do nothing to help lower gas prices--today, tomorrow, or even two decades from now.  And just yesterday she told ABC News that she would keep working on John McCain in order to change his position on Arctic drilling, something he himself said he’d consider earlier this year.  

Palin likes energy tax rebates for Alaskans when paid for by a windfall profits tax on oil companies; McCain attacks identical policy proposed by Obama for all Americans .

Under Sarah Palin’s administration, taxes on oil companies were increased in order to pay for an additional $1,200 rebate to every Alaskan (in addition to the oil tax--funded annual checks each Alaska resident already receives).  Indeed, Alaska taxes some 75 percent of the value of each barrel of oil.

Nevertheless, McCain has repeatedly and strenuously attacked Barack Obama’s plan to tax oil companies’ record profits in order to provide working Americans with a $1,000 emergency tax rebate.  

Even the Bush administration’s backhanded listing of the polar bear and subsequent proposed gutting of Endangered Species Act doesn’t go far enough to protect Big Oil for Sarah Palin.

After months of delay, the Bush administration finally agreed to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Yet, the backhanded listing explicitly prohibited using the law to halt either of the two main threats to the bear: global warming and drilling in the seas off Alaska.  The hollow listing laid the groundwork for the additional changes recently proposed by the administration that would effectively gut the bedrock environmental law.

Yet, the listing was still not hollow enough for Sarah Palin.  Citing threats to oil exploration, Palin’s administration filed suit and has moved aggressively to stop the listing of the iconic species, even as scientific evidence about increasingly perilous situation faced by the bear continues to mount.  Palin even allocated $2 million in state funding to a conference meant to "highlight arguments that global warming isn't threatening the survival of polar bears."

Both Sarah Palin and John McCain question the role of clean energy and have a concrete record of opposing it.

Palin ignores the economic reality of the clean energy revolution already underway, recently stating: "alternative--energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop."

This echoes comments made by McCain himself last December: "The clean tech -- the truly clean technologies don't work."  

Though they may pay lip service to renewable energy in their stump speeches, the McCain--Palin record on renewable energy makes it clear that drilling--not renewable energy--would be the real focus of a McCain--Palin administration’s energy policy.  In the same budget that funded a conference questioning global warming, Palin vetoed $20 million in funding for a wind farm. (Alaska has a line--item veto.)  Numerous other clean energy projects in Alaska are languishing for lack of funding.

Meanwhile, McCain has consistently voted against renewable energy policies and his failure to even show up and vote more than 8 times on essential renewable energy tax incentives has doomed them to failure. (Senate Votes: 1999, #171; 2001, #125; 2002, #50, #55, #59; 2005, #141, #363; 2006, #42; 2007, #97, #223, #416; and 2008, #8, #95, #147, #150, #190, and #192.)

Palin was for the "Bridge to Nowhere" before she was against it, kept the money anyway.

Sarah Palin and the McCain campaign have now repeated the lie that she told Congress "thanks, but no thanks" for the Bridge to Nowhere more than two dozen times.  The truth is that as a candidate for governor in 2006, Palin strongly supported the project, stating:  "Yes. I would like to see Alaska’s infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist." (Anchorage Daily News, 10/06)    

Palin also attacked those who attacked the project as wasteful: "We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmiesters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative." (Wall Street Journal, 9/9/08)

Massive public outcry caused the project to become a national joke--even the conservative Heritage Foundation called it "an embarrassment to the people of Alaska and the U.S. Congress." Following this outcry and cost overruns that would have forced the State of Alaska to spend several hundred million dollars of its own money to complete the project, Palin reluctantly acceded to the reality of the situation and agreed to cancel the project.  Indeed, she lamented that Congress and American taxpayers had not been forthcoming enough with funding for the project:  "Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island." (9/21/07)

Extremely conservative Sen. Tom Coburn proposed that the bridge’s funding, some $233 million, be stripped and redirected toward re--construction projects along the hurricane--ravaged Gulf Coast (a proposal supported by the Sierra Club).  Now--indicted Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young dug in their heels and refused.

Eventually a "compromise" was struck that removed the earmark for the bridge but provided Alaska with the full $200+ million to spend as it saw fit.  

If Sarah Palin really objected to the bridge, earmarks, or the corrupt political establishment in Alaska, she could’ve heeded the calls of liberals and conservatives alike to return the money.  Instead, she simply kept it.    

It’s time to hold the McCain campaign accountable.  They can’t be blamed for wanting to tell people what they want to hear--and American’s want change, they want energy independence and they want a clean energy future.  Unfortunately McCain’s record, positions and choice of VP demonstrate a significantly different reality than what the campaign attempts to portray. The reality is seen in the Big Oil--friendly, anti--environmental record and policies of the McCain--Palin ticket.

The Candidates on the Environment

After the first debate, still wondering where the candidates stand on the environment? DeSmog Blog does a nice job of rating both U.S. and Canadian candidates.

Obama gets an 8 out of 10 for his Clear, long-term goals for Greenhouse Gas Reductions, Higher Fuel Economy Standards and Investment in Next-Generation vehicles (i.e. Hybrid and Electric), Investment in Green Jobs and the Development of a Renewable Energy Technology sector and other components of his environmental plaform.

McCain's rating is 4 out of 10 for lacking Investment in Green Jobs and green infrastructure, as well as a host of other components missing from his environmental platform. DeSmog also points out that "while he has "talked the talk," the League of Conservation Voters gave McCain a ZERO in their latest report card based on his absence from voting on all major climate change and environmental bills presented in the Senate."

Regardless, both men are far more likely to promote international cooperation on climate issues and set clear greenhouse gas reduction targets than their predecessor. How the Wall Street bail out will effect either candidates long term clean energy and climate change mitigation plans remains to be seen.

Tell the Candidates We Want Green Jobs Now!

As we discuss an unfathomable $700 billion bail out of Wall Street, we have an opportunity this weekend to talk about an investment that will actually benefit the American people, rather than an absorption of the debt of the wealthy (did I mention that Wall Street execs gave themselves $33 billion in bonuses this past year???)

This Weekend Green for All, along with a number of partners like 1Sky, is empowering ordinary citizens to do something extraordinary - speak sense (and cents) to power. The reality is that while the U.S. economy has been tanking in just about every sector, from finance to housing, the one sector that is strong and expanding is the green jobs sector. So it's time that the government invested in the kind of job training and corporate subsidies that benefit the people and the planet.  And you can be a part of making the case.

Go to the Green Jobs Now website to find an event near you or plan your own for this Saturday, September 27th. There will be every type of event imagineable, from parties to teach-ins. The point is, the green jobs sector is the one we should be investing in, the one that can make a real difference and the one that can help us out of this economic slump. So get out there on Saturday and help bring the point home that we don't want more Wall Street bail outs, we want Green Jobs Now!

The Truth About Off-Shore Drilling

This graph, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's own data and courtesy of Architecture 2030, shows the reality about Off-Shore Drilling

Thanks to our friends at SolveClimate for a head's up on the image.

About Going Green

This site is about how to live a more sustainable, environmentally friendly lifestyle, and how to do it without breaking the bank or suggesting such a drastic change in the way you live that it seems impossible to accomplish. The thing about going green is that it should be a win-win; it should make your life easier, more fulfilling, more pleasurable, healthier and more fun, while taking care of the health and well being of our planet and the millions of folks that share it. It will feature green tips and suggestions, as well as resources for anyone and everyone. I welcome questions, comments and suggestions.

Leslie Berliant