Free Republic

ArvinMeritor and Wal-Mart Transportation announced an agreement Jan. 10 to jointly develop a dual-mode, diesel-electric drivetrain for a Class 8 tractor. The vehicle, which the companies believe to be the first dual-mode diesel-electric tractor prototype in development in North America, will be based on an International Class 8 ProStar tractor and powered by an engine developed by Cummins. "We've been working on development of hybrid drivetrains for some time," said Carsten J. Reinhardt, president of ArvinMeritor's Commercial Vehicle Systems, based in Troy, Mich. "This Class 8 project is a major step in our continuing work in alternative drivetrain development --...

Fatter drivers cause increase in gasoline consumption, says study Being overweight isn't just bad for your health. New research suggests that America's obesity epidemic is also feeding the growth in U.S. fuel consumption. Americans are pumping almost 940 million more gallons of gas into their vehicles than they did in 1960 because the average American is roughly two dozen pounds heavier. That amounts to $2.8 billion more spent on gas each year, if gas is selling for $3 a gallon. So says a new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University. Researchers used...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After badgering American manufacturers to produce cleaner, more-fuel-efficient vehicles, the Environmental Protection Agency is about to see its first product hit the streets. The engineers at the EPA's National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory here have built and tested many prototypes over the years, including a diesel-hydraulic passenger car that gets more than 80 miles per gallon. But the first EPA-influenced product to travel beyond the laboratory will be a garbage truck. The garbage truck -- slated for rollout next year -- is a hybrid vehicle. Most hybrids use two power sources. In this case, the...

Ethanol in Gasoline: Not a Good Deal for the Consumers By Michael R. Fox Ph.D., 7/2/2006 11:14:32 PM People buying into the myth that Ethanol is our energy ace have simply got to beware. In Hawaii, that includes The Honolulu Advertiser pushing it (June 20, 2006), and in recent weeks Hawaiian Electric Co. spokespeople, Governor Linda Lingle, and local radio talk show hosts. We had the Bill O'Reilly/Sen. John Kerry love fest on June 29 asserting the ethanol option is the right one. Even President George W. Bush has been swayed by the rhetoric. These politically correct solutions to our...

Ethanol stirred Wall Street last week when the second-largest ethanol producer went public, a sign that the corn-based fuel has become hot as gas prices soar. In its first day of trading, VeraSun Energy Corp.'s stock jumped 30% to $30 a share. Production capacity of ethanol in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1999, and the total number of ethanol plants has nearly doubled as well, to 97, with at least 30 more under construction. In April, Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., bought a large stake in Pacific Ethanol Inc., which produces ethanol. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recently said...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nine states have sued the administration of President George W. Bush for lenient automotive fuel economy standards that they say worsen an energy crunch and contribute to air pollution and climate change. The lawsuit says that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has failed to meet federal laws requiring government to determine the impact of regulation on fuel conservation and the environment. "At a time when consumers are struggling to pay surging gas prices and the challenge of global climate change has become even more clear, it is unconscionable that the Bush Administration is not...

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Honda Insight, a gas-electric hybrid car, edged out the Toyota Prius as the most fuel-efficient vehicle in the U.S., according to new mileage ratings from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. Both get an estimated 60 miles per gallon in city driving. **********Snip**************** Top 10 vehicles overall: (City/Highway) 1. Honda Insight (hybrid) -- 60/66 2. Toyota Prius (hybrid) -- 60/51 3.Volkswagen New Beetle and Golf (diesel, manual) -- 37/44 4. Volkswagen Jetta (diesel) -- 36/41 5. Ford Escape Hybrid FWD -- 36/31 6. Volkswagen New Beetle and Jetta(diesel, automatic) -- 35/42 7....

Drumbeat Of all places I could expect to see a “drumbeat” for raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, (Drumbeat Grows Louder For Fuel Efficiency, Patrice Hill, Monday, August 22, 2005.), the last was the front page of the Washington Times. As a matter of fact, it should have been on the op-ed page, as the first paragraph of the article clearly shows: The recently approved energy legislation excluded the biggest item that would have cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil as well as help lower record-high oil and gasoline prices: higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and sport utility vehicles.What...

Americans guzzle 65 billion gallons of fuel a year and lately we have been paying a pretty penny at the pump. NewsChannel 4 has done reports in the past on how to get the most out of your gas. Now we introduce you to a new way to save on those gasoline dollars. There is a man who fills up his tank once every two months. One tank of gas, literally, lasts him two months. He is freezing the price of gas by freezing something else.People complain about the price of gas and we are all spending dearly to stay...

By RICHARD GILBERT Thursday, May 19, 2005 Updated at 12:25 AM EDT Special to Globe and Mail Update A month ago, Ottawa reached an extraordinary agreement with the auto industry. The deal commits the industry to improving the fuel economy of cars, sport utility vehicles, vans and pickup trucks in operation in Canada by as much as 50 per cent by 2010. If implemented, the agreement could produce the most radical change in vehicles Canadians have seen - and perhaps some social changes, too. Here's why. According to the agreement (known as the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of...

Car buyers still shun fuel efficiency Surveys find even $2-a-gallon gasoline isn't likely to cause big change in car-buying habits. October 19, 2004: 11:38 AM EDT By Chris Isidore, CNN/Money senior writer NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Even with the average price of gasoline crossing the $2 a gallon mark again, don't expect U.S. car buyers to rush to fuel-efficient vehicles. Oil prices hit a new record level early Monday, and the latest AAA survey found the average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline crossing the $2 threshold again. But some leading auto research firms confirm what sales during past...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Senators Kerry, Edwards and Specter all want Pennsylvania votes on election day and are in power to deliver jobs for Pennsylvania now, today! Pennsylvania desperately needs innovative ways to create new employment vital for our future. At the same time, today America needs a clean alternative energy saving form of transportation. The next generation of high-speed ground transportation for the United States has been an ongoing activity for more than 10 years known as the Maglev Train Project. Legislation is required right now to deploy a...

MIT's plasmatron cuts diesel bus emissions, promises better gas engine efficiency October 22, 2003 MIT's plasmatron cuts diesel bus emissions, promises better gas engine efficiency A bus in Indiana is the latest laboratory for MIT's plasmatron reformer, a small device its developers believe could significantly cut the nation's oil consumption as well as noxious emissions from a variety of vehicles. The work will be the subject of an invited talk next Thursday, October 30, at a meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Plasma Physics in Albuquerque, NM. The researchers and colleagues from industry report that the plasmatron, used...

MI Senate RollCall Gasoline Mileage, 1st Ld-Writethru The Associated Press 7/29/2003, 8:36 p.m. ET (AP) — The 65-32 roll call by which the Senate voted to reject an amendment that would have required automakers to achieve a 40 mpg fleet average fuel economy by 2015. On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote in favor of the amendment and a "no" vote was a vote against the amendment. Voting "yes" were 27 Democrats, 4 Republicans, and 1 Independent. Voting "no" were 18 Democrats and 47 Republicans. Alabama Sessions (R) No; Shelby (R) No. Alaska Murkowski (R) No; Stevens (R)...

<p>Senate Republicans turned back amendments to an omnibus energy bill yesterday that would have forced automakers to build more fuel-efficient cars and trucks.</p> <p>"This is still America, isn't it? Is Congress going to mandate that people drive these things?" asked Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, pointing to a car the size of a golf cart.</p>

In the parking lot of a building squeezed between Interstate 80 and the Sacramento River, Kota Manabe did something at once elemental and revolutionary: He topped off the tank of a sport utility vehicle. The only suggestions that anything was out of the ordinary were the flame-retardant suit the Toyota engineer wore and the fuel he pumped into the Highlander: pure hydrogen. "Basically, it's just like refueling at a normal station,' fellow engineer Kyo Hattori said. Almost. While hydrogen is the most-abundant element in the universe, as an automotive fuel it's about as commonplace as moon travel. There are only...

So, does anyone know what a Vortex Combustor is? Bill Gertz/Rowan Scarborough mention it in their latest Inside The Ring article: The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking into developing a "lethal, stealthy, high-speed maritime 'fighter' platform," say agency documents. Called "Loki," the DARPA effort "is now focused on testing subscale components, like a vortex combustor....

DETROIT, June 11 — When it comes to fuel economy and the environment, there is Honda and there is the rest of the auto industry. The difference has come into sharp relief as battles rage over how to curb the nation's swelling appetite for oil. Honda is the only major automaker that has not joined the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the industry trade group that has led the fight against tougher fuel and emissions standards.Full article