Green Options

One hangup for a lot of folks unsure of electric drivetrains is the cost. Most electric cars are out of the price range a majority of the population can afford, at least right now. Costs will go down as the technology spreads.

Brammo is getting a head start though, dropping the sales price of their Enertia Electric Motorcycle from $11,995 to $7,995, a 33% cut in price on a motorcycle that has only just hit the scene.

Sigourney Weaver narrates “Acid Test“, an illuminating and terrifying NRDC documentary that explains how quickly our planet’s oceans are acidifying due to all of the carbon dioxide that we are pumping into our air. This pollution is causing rapid changes in our oceans’ chemistry that will completely disrupt all life on the planet as we know it on a scale that has not been seen for tens of millions of years.

What would happen if your Chevy Volt’s battery pack got wet during a carwash?  What if you tried to drive it through a foot of standing water after a rainstorm?  What would happen if you lost control of your Chevy Volt and drove it into a canal?

Water and electricity do not go hand-in-hand, exactly, and despite the excitement and energy surrounding Chevy’s upcoming Volt EV, a number of people are still asking questions about the basic safety of the Volt’s powerful batteries.

GM took those concerns to heart, and released some rare “behind-the-scenes” commentary on the car’s underwater testing on GM’s VoltAge blog.

Earlier this month, a team of scientists at the University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) successfully tested a new biofuel based on a mixture of canola and soybean oils, and claim it may be the key to zero emission aviation [video].

The new super-biofuel, known as Jet Propellant-8 (JP-8) was used to launch a rocket above the Mojave Desert, where it approached the speed of sound and reached an altitude of 20,000 feet - a major leap forward in biofuel-powered flight.

Speaking about the launch Carsten Heide, associate director for the EERC said, “We demonstrated that this fuel is a flying fuel, and is 100% renewable and burns clean. It would open up the possibility to run 100% renewable, clean planes. You can see in the picture how clean it burns.”

The picture you see here is the production version of the Chevy Volt, due out sometime next year. But even though the plug-in car from GM is a long way off, the General gave CNN’s Peter Valdes-Dapena a test drive in a Cruze-bodied Volt mule.

Under the economy car skin are the mechanical organs of the Volt, GM’s attempt at bringing the first mass market plug-in electric car to the market. GM invited journalists from all over the blogosphere for a quick test drive in way they say is an 80% complete production car, minus the exterior.

You'd be hard pressed to pick up a magazine on the newsstand that doesn't mention yoga within its pages. With 6,000 years of dedicated followers, there is no denying the power or pleasure of a yogic transformation. Whether you are sweating it out with Bikram or concentrating in Iyengar, you need something to practice on - a yoga mat, to be specific. Unfortunately, your "average" mat is made from PVC, a type

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