It wasn’t all that long ago that Chrysler Corp. pocketed more than $12.5 billion in government bailout funds to avoid a bankruptcy filing, promising on the way to the bank to build more fuel efficient cars and produce electric vehicles by 2011. About three years later the U.S. carmaker has launched no hybrids – although [...]

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Somehow it’s a fitting juxtaposition: using solar power to cool down. Mitsubishi Chemical has developed a solar technology system that enables solar cells to power air conditioning units in the cabin of trucks, according to reports from Kyodo News International and BusinessGreen. The result: reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Japan’s biggest chemical manufacturer, based [...]

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DHL’s much-ballyhooed GoGreen climate change program has finally reached North America. A year after the launch of the huge German package express delivery and logistics company’s initiative, it’s now available in Canada. DHL Express Canada launched the GoGreen service this week. It’s described by the company as a “carbon-neutral” shipping option that “enables Canadian businesses [...]

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Reuters reported this morning that clean tech investments have risen substantially this year. In the third quarter report just released, there were 112 deals totaling $1.9 billion that included investments in solar power, smart grids, biofuels, green building materials, and electric car technology. Much of this enthusiasm is believed to be led by a new [...]

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Intelligent transport seems more like an oxymoron than a green transportation initiative, especially in the U.S., but with impetus from IBM there are positive results to report on two fronts: city congestion and pollution. The controversial debate about using taxes and fees to control wasteful driving habits while helping the environment could enter a new [...]

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The European Union has proved that it means business when it comes to banishing climate-damaging chemicals in cars. On Tuesday, the EU refused to grant a delay, requested by auto makers, on a recent ban on certain vehicle air conditioner chemicals, Reuters reports. In 2006, the EU decided that, starting in 2011, it would ban [...]

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Big auto companies aren’t the only ones competing in the electric vehicle (EV) market. Coda Automotive, a 41-employee company without its own factory, designers, or dealer network, claims it will beat General Motors and other large firms in the EV market. Coda’s affordable, all-electric automobile (built for the “average American,” the Washington Post reports) is [...]

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Today, The Wall Street Journal reports, General Motors was the biggest winner (of 48 winners) of the Obama administration’s electric vehicle (EV) “battery sweepstakes” – a $2.4 billion plan to jump-start U.S. EV battery production. Government-controlled GM, creator of the Chevy Volt, won $240 million in direct grants. These funds will cover GM’s manufacture of [...]

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As long as gasoline-powered vehicles ply the nation’s highways reducing transportation pollution is perhaps the most critical element in the effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report from group of federal agencies and advocacy groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund. Once that realization sinks fully in and actions are implemented it will [...]

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Photo Credit: Vi Photography I have heard the future.  And it sounds… quiet.  As a new transplant to DC, I started accepting road noise and grimy air as inevitabilities of city life.  On Tuesday, Bryan Hansel, CEO of Smith Electric Vehicles, showed me an alternative.  (Thank you, Bryan.) On Tuesday, at the footsteps of the [...]

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Environmental innovations should be affordable to the people who need it most.

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Last week, electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors made headlines with the unveiling of its long-anticipated Model S sedan. The elegantly-styled four-door hatchback has some extremely impressive statistics. As a matter of fact, the stats are so good that it makes me wonder if this could be the beginning of the end for the Big Three. [...]

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We often talk a lot about the high or volatile cost of oil, and how this impacts consumer and investor behavior. For instance, when gasoline crossed the $4.00 per gallon mark, demand for hybrid vehicles soared, and millions in funding started to flow into the high-performance battery sector. Of course, there’s also the excessive environmental [...]

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Given the widespread and well-funded political opposition to both urban planning and public transportation funding that’s prevailed across the United States for most of the past 40 years, we’re lucky to have buses or trains at all.

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At $100 a barrel OPEC’s market capitalization stands on roughly $92 trillion, almost half of the world’s total financial assets and nearly twice the market capitalization of all the companies traded in the world’s 27 top stock markets.

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OPEC in a base case reference scenario forecasts that oil demand will grow an average 1.7% per annum between 2006 and 2030 resulting in a 50% increase in CO2 emissions. Transportation, particularly, car ownership in fast-growing developing countries will account for the biggest part of the increase though in aggregate cars in OECD countries will continue to be the source of more than half.

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