Green Options

My happy transportation moment of the week came when I stumbled across this most excellent song on the Muni Diaries. The rap was created for the Transit Authority of River City in Louisville, Kentucky to explain how to use the bike racks on their buses. The infectious chorus has been stuck in my head all week: “Bring it down, pull the bar, put it on, put it on, take it off, put it

[...]

Oh! The weather outside [can be] frightful, which is why Stephen Chu of the U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that 7 states (Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire) will be the recipients of more than $288 million dollars, which will be put toward weatherization projects.

Three more car companies received sizeable loans from the federal government yesterday, but don’t worry; it’s not another bailout. In fact, the$8 billion is just the start of a larger $25 billion project called the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVM for short) that was thought up back in 2007 and funded by Congress in late 2008 during the Bush administration. The project, overseen by the Department of Energy, is a federal grant and loan initiative bent on providing [...]

Two groups that oppose mountaintop removal coal mining have been told they are not welcome to hold their upcoming meetings at a former Boy Scout camp deep in the coal fields of eastern Kentucky — despite both having held events there without incident in the past.

Jim Scheff of Kentucky Heartwood said his group called last May to reserve Camp Blanton for a gathering called the Heartwood Forest Council, to be held Memorial Day weekend. Another group, Mountain Justice, booked the camp for the days leading up to the holiday weekend.

Both groups found out just two weeks ago that their reservations were suddenly canceled.

Board member and attorney for the trust that operates the camp, Sidney Douglass told the Lexington Herald-Tribune that several board members have ties to the coal industry and “board members didn’t want to get the camp involved in the kind of controversies that they’re involved in.”

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has released a new report showing that while animal welfare laws have made great progress in recent years, five states lag far behind.

Work commenced at the site of a $175 million electric car factory in Franklin, Kentucky, according to officials for Integrity Automotive, a joint venture to expand electric vehicle manufacturing in the USA for ZAP.

The State of Kentucky has suddenly jumped into the world of electric cars.  First in early August Governor Steve Beshear signed an executive order that allowed low speed vehicles on Kentucky roads with speed limits of 45 mph or less.  Soon thereafter the state developed a $48 million incentive package to encourage ZAP to build an electric car manufacturing plant in Kentucky.

ZAP’s vehicles are currently manufactured in China, but according to the company’s CEO Steve Schneider, the costs of logistics for ZAP have risen in recent years, particularly to ship vehicles from California to the East Coast.  A Kentucky manufacturing plant would help reduce that cost, he said.

They sure didn’t waste any time.  Construction equipment arrived at the site of the Wilkey North Industrial Park on Thursday September 11th, and a site contractor with a work crew have been mobilized to prepare the 200-plus acre site for rough grading, according Randall S. Waldman of Integrity Manufacturing. The goal of the project is a one million square foot factory for electric vehicles, a project with an estimated value of $100 million. The factory is expected to begin producing electric vehicles within 12 months and employ up to 1,000 people initially with the possibility of more in the future.

TableTours is offering a three-day local eating and drinking tour of Kentucky’s Bourbon country October 2 - 4.

The price of the tour is $350 per person and includes diverse Bourbon tastings, customized breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus from some of Kentucky’s most celebrated chefs, distillery and museum visits, and lectures on Bourbon and [...]

Joke all you want about politicians’ hot air contributing to global warming, but at least the folks attending the Democratic and Republican National Conventions this summer will have a chance to limit their greenhouse gas emissions off the convention floors.

That’s because both Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul plan to use their respective conventions to kick off a new bike-sharing program called “Freewheelin.” Created by the health benefits company Humana Inc. and the not-for-profit Bikes Belong, Freewheelin will bring 1,000 bikes to each city during the convention. Convention-goers will be able to use the bicycles free of charge to get around town without the need for cars.

The Geek Squad is partnering with IdeaFestival to promote a contest for ideas that help with e-waste, power conservation, and untapped resources. The Geek Squad is a national 24-hour computer support service that is offered by Best Buy stores around the nation.

The Idea Festival is a 3 day event from September 13-15, 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky, that gathers together leaders and thinkers across the nation to explore and celebrate innovations and ideas.

[...]