Green Options

Scanning the week’s news of the leading fleet magazine, more than half the headlines are focused on automotive manufacturers including Toyota, Ford, Nissan and their commitment to greening of their fleets by moving to electric vehicle technologies.

For example, Nissan plans to use a $1.6 billion U.S. loan to rework a Tennessee factory so that battery-powered cars can be manufactured there. Ford Motor Company said it has developed an intelligent vehicle-to-grid communications and control system for its plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that “talks” with the nation’s electric grid.

Indeed it is exciting to read on a daily basis how much closer we are to the reality of EV’s for consumers and fleets.  Fleets will be the first mass adopters of EVs and PHEVs. We are already seeing businesses, government agencies, cities and countries across the world that are making significant and meaningful steps to reducing their fuel costs, our nation’s dependence on imported fuel, and our carbon footprint by converting their gas guzzling and polluting fleets to eco friendly EV’s…but what about the infrastructure needed to support such vehicles?  Is there different technology needed to support EV fleets vs. consumer EVs?  Just what are the needs of fleet managers when it comes to EV fleets?

The Auriga Leader, a Japanese owned NYK cargo ship capable of carrying 6,400 cars and using over 300 solar panels as part of its power supply was docked in Long Beach yesterday, and just departed. It is the first commerical cargo ship employing solar power technology to reduce diesel emissions. The solar panels can supply up to 15% of the vessel’s electrical power when docked. The ship will probably return to Long Beach in about [...]

Not everyone attending the motorcycle show this weekend is looking for a Harley or a fast sport bike. They’re not all looking for powerful bikes with lots of flash. Some of them are commuters looking for ways to save money and maybe even lessen the environmental impact of their driving.

And they’re in luck.

At this year’s Cycle World International Motorcycle Show in Long Beach, scooters get their own section, the Scooter Pavilion.

One electric vehicle company, Vectrix, is debuting their 2009 model of the Vx-1 this weekend, a highway-capable scooter with tons of style. The Vx-1 has a top speed of 62 mph, and a 35 to 55 mile range.

Just a day before being picked as the GOP vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wrote a letter to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to shoot down a groundbreaking pollution-reduction effort aimed at cargo containers: she asked the Governator not to sign a bill that would impose heavy fees on ships entering the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Oakland.

Palin’s concerns were aimed at the Alaskan economy, and [...]

As Southern California faces an extended drought, cities here are taking steps to reduce consumption. Methods vary from the carrot to the stick.

Considering that I still see people washing sidewalks and driveways, and lawn sprinklers running at noon, I like the approach that Long Beach is taking. By educating the public through print, online, and television ads, the city has managed to reduce water use by 13% over this month last [...]

It’s one thing to be appalled by the monstrous accumulation of millions of square miles of plastic waste spinning slowly in the North Pacific gyre. It’s another thing entirely to build an ocean-going vessel out of plastic waste and set out across the sea to call attention to the environmental catastrophe.

That’s exactly what two men, one from California and one from Hawaii, are now doing. The two — Marcus Eriksen, a Ph.D., Gulf War vet and director of research and education for the Long Beach-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, and Joel Paschal, a former businessman in Hawaii and a one-time employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — are sailing across the Pacific in a homemade vessel, Kon Tiki-style, to “raise awareness about plastic fouling our oceans.”