President Obama called for more use of natural gas in transportation this Thursday while visiting a UPS facility in Las Vegas. We commend the President for recognizing the immediate benefit of using a clean, domestic fuel such as natural gas: “A great place to start is natural gas,” stated Obama.…Read more

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Surprise —or not, automakers plan to ramp up hiring of US workers for 2012. There are several reasons, the first being that auto sales are on a rebound from their historic lows during the recession, during which about 200,000 workers were laid off. Much of the hiring represents recalled workers, but it’s still good news for local economies as those workers will again have money to spend……Read more

Find out how FirmGreen is contributing to job growth by manufacturing green technology in the USA: …visit firmgreen.com

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The Obama administration says that proposed higher fuel economy standards can be expected to increase vehicle prices about $2000 but that owners will save an average of $6,600 in fuel costs over the life of the vehicle.

In order to be as realistic as possible (see chart above), we made a slightly less rosy analysis but there are still real savings to be had with more fuel efficient vehicle…Read more

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photo credit: NAIAS

At the Detroit Auto Show, open from January 9-22, 2012, electric cars and hybrids abound…Read more

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China will waive sales taxes on 49 domestically made electric and fuel cell cars, the finance ministry said last Saturday, in its latest initiative to shore up the country’s fledgling green car market. As an added incentive, buyers of locally made electric cars are also eligible for government subsidies of up to 120,000 yuan ($19,100) [...]

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Today, December 21st, Mercedes-Benz announced two new hybrid sedans. The E300 BlueTEC Hybrid (photo above) features a diesel-electric powertrain, while the E400 Hybrid is a more conventional gasoline-electric hybrid…Read more

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Market development is required for increased use of biomethane in the transport sector, and support in the U.S. currently lags well behind that in the European Union. An official UK Environmental Audit states that “biomethane is an almost perfect renewable transport fuel.” The audit concludes that wide adoption of CNG and biomethane for transport will deliver the greatest air quality benefits at the lowest cost, especially when compared to expensive battery powered hybrid electric vehicles….Read more

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On November 28-29th, Washington State University Energy Program and Washington Clean Cities will host a 2-part webinar on Biomethane as a Transportation Fuel.
Speakers from Argonne National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory will be featured. Topics will include discussion of technologies for producing biomethane (or renewable natural gas), costs and benefits, plus opportunities for biomethane [...]

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2011 has seen the introduction of several bills related to alternative fuels and alternative fueled vehicles (AFVs) in the 112th Congress. Notably, S.1001 and S.734 have now been placed on the Senate’s calendar of business…Read more

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Why the push for electric vehicles? Are they clean environmentally and/or an efficient use of fossil fuel energy?…Read More

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