Free Republic

We first saw Jay Leno's EcoJet mid-engine turbine coupe at the 2006 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Leno, with General Motors' Design Chief, Ed Welburn, and Frank Saucedo, who heads the automaker's west coast studio, penned the design concept. Leno has both a motorcycle and a pickup truck powered by "jet" turbine engines, so the plan was to create an automobile that would run on a similar powerplant fueled by biodiesel. The EcoJet was initially a static exhibit, but one thing about Jay's Garage is that everything runs. So Jim Hall, Bernard Juchli and the other wizards in the Burbank...

Local residents and officials took a peek into the future when they test drove cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells and heard about the need for more hydrogen fueling stations to bring the technology into the mainstream. The demonstration, held at Mahwah Township Hall, was organized by Mahwah Councilman John DaPuzzo and attended Thursday night by about 50 people, including Assemblyman David C. Russo, R-Midland Park, employees from the Oakland Department of Public Works, the Bergen County Police and residents. They got an up-close look at four Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicles that are part of a year-old program called...

The collapse of the ethanol boom continues as a Pratt-based ethanol producer is the latest to file bankruptcy. Gateway Ethanol LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, estimating it owes between $50 million and $100 million. The filing comes weeks after Minneapolis-based Dougherty Funding LLC sought to have Gateway placed in emergency receivership to preserve any money being returned to creditors. It moved to foreclose on the company’s plant in May, saying Gateway defaulted on a $54.3 million loan used to build the facility. In a motion field in the U.S. District Court of Kansas in September, Dougherty noted...

Energy Policy: The speaker of the House touts natural gas as an "alternative fuel like wind." Could it be that this time she's put her money where her mouth is?Somewhere in the universe there may be a planet where natural gas is considered an alternative form of energy, but on this one it's still considered a fossil fuel. Yes, it's clean-burning — "the cleanest of all fossil fuels," as the Natural Gas Supply Organization puts it. But it's still a fossil fuel formed deep within the earth, like its coal and petroleum cousins, by extreme pressure and heat. Speaker Pelosi,...

PARIS (AFP) - The OECD favours a moratorium on expanding biofuel production, a senior official with the Paris-based body said on Wednesday following the release of a report critical of vegetable-based fuels. "It would make a lot of sense to have a moratorium," Stefan Tangermann, head of agriculture and trade analysis at the OECD told AFP...

As Price of Grain Rises, Catfish Farms Dry Up By DAVID STREITFELD LELAND, Miss. — Catfish farmers across the South, unable to cope with the soaring cost of corn and soybean feed, are draining their ponds. “It’s a dead business,” said John Dillard, who pioneered the commercial farming of catfish in the late 1960s. Last year Dillard & Company raised 11 million fish. Next year it will raise none. People can eat imported fish, Mr. Dillard said, just as they use imported oil. As for his 55 employees? “Those jobs are gone.” Corn and soybeans have nearly tripled in price...

Up! Up! Up! The world is consuming more and more energy and, as if by miracle, the amount left to consume grows ever higher. Never before in human history has energy been accessible in greater abundance and in more regions, never before has mankind had more energy options and faced a brighter energy future.Take oil, the scarcest of the major energy commodities. In the Americas, proven oil reserves have increased from 170 billion barrels to 180 billion barrels over the last two decades, according to the 2008 Statistical World Review from British Petroleum. In Europe and Eurasia, proven oil reserves...

Finding direction in wind. T. BOONE PICKENS KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT THE ENERGY business, and right now he's really, really into wind. His private firm, Mesa Power, is buying leases in the American heartland for a massive wind-power project whose first phase includes about 700 windmills on 400,000 acres near Pampa, Tex. By its completion in 2014, Pampa should be the world's largest wind farm, generating enough electricity to light 1.3 million homes. The legendary Texas oil man isn't alone. Some $9 billion of new wind projects boosted U.S. wind-power-generation capacity 46% last year. That, says a U.S. Department of Energy...

I frequently travel through West Texas, eastern New Mexico, and the Oklahoma Panhandle and almost every time I am on an interstate in one of these three areas, I pass a caravan of tractor trailer rigs carrying blades for wind turbines. Wind turbines, which are popping up across the windswept southern plains or the elevated areas of eastern New Mexico, are roughly one hundred feet tall with three blades, each of which are approximately fifty feet long. Moreover, the construction of more of these “environmentally friendly” beasts is constantly pushed by those who believe one above ground oil rig would...

On the eve of the 4th of July, 2008, Americans are arguably as angry about being taxed without representation as at any time since they declared their independence from Great Britain. At the moment, they are furious about having no say over what amounts to a “tax” levied in the form of extortionate fuel prices driven by the supply-manipulating OPEC oil cartel. As was true 232 years ago, we must channel that anger into action. This will require not just declaring independence from the Saudi-led oil monopoly, but taking the steps necessary to secure our freedom. OPEC is able to...

This started out as an attempt to create a light and humorous, Letterman-esque Top 10 list. But the items on the list, and the drain Americans are seeing in their pocketbooks because of Democrats' actions (sometimes inaction) are just too tragic for that. 10) ANWR  If Bill Clinton had signed into law the Republican Congress's 1995 bill to allow drilling of ANWR instead of vetoing it, ANWR could be producing a million barrels of (non-Opec) oil a day--5% of the nation's consumption. Although speaking in another context, even Democrat Senator Charles Schumer, no proponent of ANWR drilling, admits that "one million barrels...

President Bush entered office calling on Congress to pass the first national energy plan in a generation. He proposed a comprehensive energy plan to encourage conservation and energy efficiency; expand the use of alternative and renewable energy; increase the domestic production of conventional fuels; and invest in modernization of our energy infrastructure. The energy bill passed by Congress this week paves the way for a brighter and more secure energy future with more reliable, affordable, and clean sources of energy to power America forward. It will help put us on the path to reducing our dependence on foreign sources...

Ethanol fires harder to control than gasoline, require special foam Francine Sawyer February 28, 2008 - 8:52PM The nation’s drive toward alternative fuels carries a danger many communities have been slow to recognize: Ethanol fires are harder to put out than gasoline fires and require a special type of firefighting foam. Many fire departments don’t have the foam, don’t have enough of it, or are not well-trained in how to apply it. The foam is also more expensive than conventional foam. Bobby Aster, New Bern Fire and Rescue chief, said fighting ethanol fires is new to the fire service. “As...

New 'super-spike' might mean $200 a barrel oil Goldman's projections foretell persistent turbulence in energy prices By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch Last update: 1:42 p.m. EST March 7, 2008 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- With $100-a-barrel here for now, Goldman Sachs says $200 a barrel could be a reality in the not-too-distant future in the case of a "major disruption." Goldman on Friday also boosted by $10 the low end of its 2008-2012 projected range for crude to $60 a barrel -- significantly lower than current prices, to be sure, but a possible mark for oil if "normalized" trends return to the...

MONTEREY, California (AFP) - A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel. Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing "fourth-generation fuel" project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California. "We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy," Venter told an audience that included global warming fighter Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page. "We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with...

Monthly U.S. ethanol output through November 2007, the last data available, averaged nearly 12.7 million barrels, or 64 percent higher than average monthly production in 2005, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy. Ethanol production this year is expected to rise 130,000 barrels per day -- or the amount of gasoline a medium-sized oil refinery puts out -- to 550,000 bpd, according to the EIA. And U.S. imports of sugar-based ethanol, a fuel much lower in carbon emissions, from Brazil and producers in the Caribbean and Central America, increased 300 percent from 2005...

Switchgrass grown for biofuel production produced 540 percent more energy than needed to grow, harvest and process it into cellulosic ethanol, according to estimates from a large on-farm study by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Results from the five-year study involving fields on farms in three states highlight the prairie grass' potential as a biomass fuel source that yields significantly more energy than is consumed in production and conversion into cellulosic ethanol, said Ken Vogel, a U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service geneticist in UNL's agronomy and horticulture department. The study involved switchgrass fields on farms in Nebraska, North...

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez says he wants to send oil to $200 a barrel. Robert Zubrin has a plan to stop him. In his just released book, Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil, Zubrin, an American aerospace engineer known previously primarily for his inventive approach to Mars exploration, lays out the strategy. To say the book is remarkable, would be a severe understatement. Combining soaring idealism, incisive thinking, and a viscous [sic -- a funny inadvertent pun] go-for-throat killer instinct in a single package, Energy Victory is the first book I have ever read that...

The following is a summary of Thompson’s views on the issues of National Security, Federal Budget and Spending/Budgetary Reform, Tax Reform, Healthcare, Government Effectiveness, Building Strong Families, Immigration, Education, Appointment of Judges, Energy Security, and the Second Amendment. National Security In a post 9/11 world, Thompson recognizes the need for America to increase its ability to defeat its terrorist enemies. Therefore, his plans include upscaling the military, improving the missile defense system, enhancing the intelligence community, making homeland security robust enough to protect America from terrorists worldwide, giving backbone the judicial system so it will face the reality of terrorism...

GEARHEADS IN GREEN Veteran auto writer pioneered Green Car Journal when Detroit was centered on bigger-is-better Michael Taylor, Chronicle Auto Editor Sunday, May 20, 2007 (05-20) 04:00 PDT San Luis Obispo -- Green Car Journal, a magazine devoted to writing about cars that are powered by something other than just gasoline, is the kind of publication that, when you think about it, could only have been invented by a Car Guy -- if it had been started by a Greenie, such as Al Gore, it just wouldn't have worked. Frankly, it wouldn't have had the true gearhead spirit, let alone...

President George W. Bush's January, 2006 declaration that the U.S. is "addicted to oil" marked the beginning of a gold rush for corn growers: The government policies the comment helped spur have been a boon for the producers of corn-based ethanol, the all-American fuel that now displaces about 4% of U.S. gasoline supply. Over the past 18 months, farmers have rushed to plant more corn—and are set to produce a record crop this year—while small-time entrepreneurs and agricultural giants alike have built plants to expand capacity. A handful of initial public offerings have fed investors' desire to get in on...

TOWN OF DOVER, Wis. (AP) -- Barney Lavin ought to be the poster child for ethanol. A fifth-generation corn farmer, working the land his family homesteaded in 1842, Lavin should see dollar signs over a proposed ethanol plant in this small southeastern Wisconsin town. Instead, Lavin put down his pitchfork and picked up his cell phone, joining the ranks of other unlikely opponents organizing against ethanol plants, fearing air pollution, increased traffic and groundwater depletion. "I'm unwilling to give up the obvious quality of life we have here for some added income," said Lavin, who grows corn on a 300-acre...

For Immediate ReleaseFebruary 10, 2007 President's Radio Address       Audio      In Focus: Energy      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Last Saturday, I addressed the annual retreat of Democrats from the House of Representatives. I thanked the Members of the new majority for their service in Congress. And we discussed our responsibility to work together on a wide range of issues -- from fighting the global war on terror, to making health care more affordable, to balancing the Federal budget. One area with great potential for bipartisan cooperation is energy policy. The need for action is clear. Our Nation's reliance on oil...

President Bush's State of the Union address, which called for a nearly fivefold increase in the nation's alternative-fuel consumption by 2017, did little to silence critics who contend that new fuels like ethanol and biodiesel aren't likely to play a major role supplying the world's energy needs in the years ahead. They see two key problems. First, the profitability of many alternative fuels -- without sizable subsidies -- is still in question. This is especially true now that the cost of raw ingredients used to produce "biofuel," including corn, has rocketed, squeezing profit margins for producers of those fuels. At...

The President is correct -- the U.S. is too dependent on foreign sources of energy, a necessary and vital component to national security. Government policies should do more to promote domestic energy production in all its forms, including but not exclusively related to motor fuels. The fact of the matter is that the country is over 70% self-sufficient when we consider total energy (coal, nuclear, hydro, renewables, gas, etc). Although much of that dependence relates to oil, the U.S. does not import nearly as much from the Middle East as some suggest. As energy expert Daniel Yergin recently pointed out...

WASHINGTON -- A new coalition of environmental groups and major corporations such as Alcoa Inc., General Electric Co., DuPont Co. and Duke Energy Corp. will boost pressure on Congress and President Bush next week to address climate change more rapidly. The informal coalition plans a news conference Monday to publicize its recommendations, ahead of Tuesday's State of the Union address, according to a person familiar with the situation. It will suggest that Congress and the administration move quickly to address global warming through steps such as capping greenhouse-gas emissions and discouraging construction of conventional coal-burning power plants, which are a...

Mild winter weather has something to do with it. So does heavy selling by financial funds. But a largely overlooked factor in the recent plunge in oil prices may portend an end to the multiyear rise in crude: For the first time in years, the developed world is burning less of it. Fresh data from the International Energy Agency show oil consumption in the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development fell 0.6% in 2006. Though the decline appears small, it marks the first annual drop in more than 20 years among the OECD countries, which...

Elected officials, business leaders and environmental watchdogs, invited by the editorial board, recently met at The Dallas Morning News to discuss clean air issues. This is the first of three excerpted transcripts from the roundtable. The speakers quoted: Colleen McCain Nelson, editorial writer; Margaret Keliher, Dallas County judge through 2006; Richard Greene, regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency; Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen's Texas office; Jim Schermbeck, Downwinders at Risk board member; Todd Campbell, director of public policy for Clean Energy and mayor of Burbank, Calif.; Al Armendariz, assistant professor, SMU School of Engineering; Robert Cluck, Arlington...

Jerry Bagby is typical of the oil men who are prospecting for a fortune in the Midwestern biofuels boom. He's convinced there's oil in these hills — and he's found a well that no one else is using. Bagby and a longtime friend have cobbled together $5 million to build a new biodiesel plant on the lonely croplands outside this southeast Missouri town. They're betting they can hit paydirt by exploiting a generally overlooked natural resource that's abundant in these parts — chicken fat. There's a virtual gusher of the stuff at a nearby Tyson Foods Inc. poultry plant. Currently,...

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Monday announced an agreement with a team of companies to build one of the nation's first coal-to-liquid fuel facilities. DKRW Advanced Fuels and Arch Minerals will take the primary role as the developers of the Bull Mountain Coal to Liquid plant. DKRW and Arch Minerals are the principal developers of the previously announced Medicine Bow CTL facility in Wyoming. The Montana plant would use what is called integrated gas combined cycle technology to gasify, rather than ignite the coal. The project calls for converting a portion of the synthetic gas into...

The Innovation: A ceramic power source for electric cars that could blow away the combustion engine The Disrupted: Oil companies and carmakers that don't climb aboard Forget hybrids and hydrogen-powered vehicles. EEStor, a stealth company in Cedar Park, Texas, is working on an "energy storage" device that could finally give the internal combustion engine a run for its money -- and begin saving us from our oil addiction. "To call it a battery discredits it," says Ian Clifford, the CEO of Toronto-based electric car company Feel Good Cars, which plans to incorporate EEStor's technology in vehicles by 2008. EEStor's device...

SIR RICHARD BRANSON has joined forces with two of America’s top venture capitalists to slake California’s thirst for environmentally friendly fuels. Branson has injected more than $60m (£32m) into Cilion, a company that will make bioethanol from corn. He is investing alongside Vinod Khosla, the renowned Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and Ron Burkle, a Los Angeles billionaire who counts Bill Clinton among his advisers. The project is the start of a move by Branson’s Virgin empire into environmental businesses, a plan known internally as the Gaia Capitalism Project, after the environmental theory developed by the British scientist James Lovelock. Virgin Fuels,...

Vt. Dairy Farmers Use Manure for Energy By DAVID GRAM (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press June 30, 2006 7:07 AM EDT BRIDPORT, Vt. - The cows at the Audet family's Blue Spruce Farm make nearly 9,000 gallons of milk a day - and about 35,000 gallons of manure. It's long been the milk that pays, but now the Audets have figured out how to make the manure pay as well. They're using it - actually, the methane that comes from it - to generate electricity. With the help of their power company, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the Audets...

Alternative Energy Sources Inc. plans to acquire Flex Fuels USA Inc. and its affiliate, ACN Energy Consulting Inc. in a stock-for-stock deal that would give Alternative Energy access to Flex Fuel's proprietary ethanol production technology. Huntsville-based Flex Fuels has developed methods of producing cellulosic ethanol made from biomass and other types of waste rather than corn or sugar, making it less vulnerable to price or supply fluctuations. Kansas City, Mo.-based Alternative Energy Sources (OTC: AENS.OB), has signed a letter of intent to acquire all the company's outstanding capital stock and expects to sign a merger agreement by Sept. 15. "Our...

LaGRANGE, Ga. - Long black tubes snake into a small mountain of rotting garbage, slowly sucking natural gas out of the gradually sinking pit. Years ago, the west Georgia landfill would have leaked into the air tons of methane, a greenhouse gas that's 20 times more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Yet with the help of an industrial partner, progressive city leaders have transformed this trash pit into a new revenue stream and a source of renewable energy. Larger trash dumps around the nation are required by the Environmental Protection Agency to capture the methane gas that peters...

In the 1960s, 85% of the oil in the world was available for ownership, development, partnerships, and such. At the time, 14% of the oil reserves belonged to the Soviet Union. Today it is the reverse of that: 16% of the world's oil is available. 65% is owned by the nations that possess the fields and 19% has limited access -- that is, nations, including Russia, will allow others to invest in and partially own their oil fields. It's different now. And, shall we not forget there are some nations that will allow investment and development and then, when all...

In the unfortunate argument about peak oil supply, what constitutes "oil" is usually poorly defined. Canada's vast bitumen deposits, mostly located in northern Alberta, offer insight into the difficulty of determining what oil is, defining proved reserves, and peak production. There is little agreement on how this bitumen should be classified. Many folks do it the way World Oil does: with explanations and footnotes. One of our reasons for not classifying bitumen the same as conventional proved reserves is the fact that it presently relies on large amounts of natural gas and water for extraction and processing, as well as...

Giant mechanical claws grab tonnes of sugar cane from huge, open-topped trailer trucks and place them on conveyor belts where they are crushed into juice. Here at the Costa Pinto refining plant an hour's drive from Sao Paulo begins the process which now powers half of Brazil's cars. It is big business. Cosan, which owns the plant, is Brazil's biggest sugar refiner, publicly quoted and soon to list on Wall Street. It has 16 other facilities like Costa Pinto, producing a billion litres of ethanol and generating $200m. It is planning to accelerate production. The cause is the soaring price...

To get to the cutting edge of alternative energy in New Jersey, travel a two-lane mountain road, turn left at a cluster of old-fashioned mailboxes, amble across a wooden bridge and snake up a gravel driveway. There, on a 12-acre lot in East Amwell Township, sit 10 cylindrical fuel tanks – waiting for the day Mike Strizki's four-bedroom colonial will become New Jersey's first hydrogen-powered house. Once it's running, the home's solar-and-hydrogen system will make its own energy. Three years after receiving a state grant to design the system, Strizki is close to reassuring officials his project is safe –...

JACKSON - Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority wants to turn trash into gas for the everyday automobile. The people who run the 285-acre landfill next to Savannah River Site have invested $400,000 on a machine that separates plastic and paper from other wastes, leaving behind a "processed engineered fuel" that has been used to replace coal. Now they want to take the cycle a step further by turning the mounds of processed garbage into liquid ethanol for automobiles. Three Rivers General Manager Colin Covington estimates that half of the 250,000 tons of trash that roll into the dump each year...

WASHINGTON, May 13 — When an F-16 lights up its afterburners, it consumes nearly 28 gallons of fuel per minute. No wonder, then, that of all the fuel the United States government uses each year, the Air Force accounts for more than half. The Air Force may not be in any danger of suffering inconveniences from scarce or expensive fuel, but it has begun looking for a way to power its jets on something besides conventional fuel. (Snip) The Air Force effort falls under a directive from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to explore alternative fuel sources. Under the plan,...

Bush marks Earth Day with focus on alternative fuels SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - President George W. Bush marked Earth Day on Saturday by highlighting technology that could reduce U.S. dependence on oil, while Democrats used a spike in gas prices to criticize White House energy policy. With oil prices hitting a record high this week and gas at the pump topping $3 a gallon in some places, Democrats hoping to win control of the U.S. Congress in November elections seized on the issue to make a populist argument against big oil companies and Republicans' ties to them. Critics are also...

Summer driving will be expensive, with gasoline costs likely to stay high after jumping nearly 20 cents over the past two weeks. The cost of gasoline averages $2.68 nationwide for a gallon of regular. Some analysts say motorists may pay $3 a gallon this summer if there are unusual disruptions in supply. The Energy Department was to release its summer outlook for motor fuel prices at a news conference Tuesday. Prices at the pump have been climbing since February when the cost of regular grade gasoline averaged $2.25 a gallon. The average price of $2.68 a gallon last week is...

For passenger vehicles in Europe, gasoline and diesel continue to be the standard fuels. But with rising prices for gasoline and diesel, alternative fuels are steadily gaining more attention. In addition to its engine management systems for gasoline and diesel engines, Bosch has developed systems for alternative fuels. They are laying the foundations for sustainable mobility. · Flexible engine management systems for natural-gas or alcohol drive · CNG lowers running costs and conserves the environment · Alcohol-based fuel especially popular in Brazil With the Bosch NG-Motronic flexible engine management system, cars can be run on either gasoline or compressed natural...

A company offering rental cars powered entirely by bio-diesel set up shop in Los Angeles on Tuesday, hoping to bring the aroma of popcorn and doughnuts to the city's smoggy freeways. ADVERTISEMENT Just one snag -- there is only one place in town to fill up. Bio-Beetle Eco Rental Cars, which started out on the Hawaiian island of Maui three years ago, opened for business near Los Angeles International Airport with four cars fueled by filtered vegetable oil. "I've always wanted to come to Los Angeles," said founder Shaun Stenshol. "California is known as an environmentally friendly state and LA...

I never thought in my wildest dreams that my latest documentary The Rats Below was going to touch so deeply the Cuban exile community in Miami, betrayed by eight American presidents! But now add a seemingly benign huge U.S. corporation to the list of enemies, and the community responded! There have been all sorts of discrimination – even being excluded from a jury for being Cuban American for a trial in Miami. And being derided, maligned and literally dragged through the mud by the liberal U.S. media, openly calling them “Miami Mafia,” has left deep scars in the heart of...

When President Bush talked about environmentally responsible energy in his State of the Union speech, it was a surprise to a lot of folks. He was supposed to be a patsy or a puppet for Big Oil, according to his enemies, who grumbled that he was playing against type. But, as one political consultant said to me, "If Bush was actually a pawn of the oil industry, he would never have said that. He would not want people to even begin to think about alternate forms of energy." The harsh and sometimes daunting truth is that, like everything else in...

Detroit WHEN TREASURY SECRETARY John Snow announced guidelines for a new tax cut for the rich here last week, liberals did not denounce him. That's because the proposed tax breaks were for gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, the favorite ride of environmentalists this side of bicycles. But the dirty secret about hybrids is that, even as the government continues to fuel their growth with tax subsidies, they don't deliver the gas savings they promise.Most cars and trucks don't achieve the gas mileage they advertise, according to Consumer Reports. But hybrids do a far worse job than conventional vehicles in meeting their Environmental...

...For starters, it's hard to find the stuff. There are roughly 180,000 gasoline stations nationwide and fewer than 500 with E85. And ethanol can take us only so far. Huge tracts of farmland would have to be converted to corn production to provide enough fuel for significant portions of the American automobile fleet. A recent study published in the journal BioScience forecast that for all cars and trucks to run on ethanol by 2048, "virtually the entire country, with the exception of cities, would be covered with corn plantations." Using more farmland to produce ethanol would also drive up food...

Green Car Journal: Hybrids a Natural at Sierra Club National Convention SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31 -- Hybrid electric vehicles are in the news and, increasingly, on American highways. Still, most people's experience with hybrids is limited to observing these advanced technology vehicles from afar, without the benefit of getting behind the wheel and finding out just how "natural" hybrids feel. This dynamic will change as the Sierra Club presents its Sierra Summit, the environmental group's first-ever National Environmental Convention and Expo, where at times it may appear there's as much activity outside San Francisco's Moscone Center as inside. During two...