New EPA Labels Include Gallons per 100 Miles
The EPA is exploring the idea of requiring a "graded" fuel economy label for cars starting in 2012.See the graded and ungraded versions here:http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/label.htmIf you have any...
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Fuel Consumption Standards for Heavy Trucks
[Update 10/28: A useful summary from greencarreports.com]Earlier in the year, the NRC released a report on how to reduce fuel consumption of large trucks (see here and here). Last week the EPA issues a...
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Raising CAFE to 60 MPG
Earlier this fall, the Obama administration released a call for a 60 MPG standard by 2025. The announcement followed two other relevant news items.First, two polls this year have asked about public...
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Supporting 60 MPG
If you are interested in supporting the 60 MPG target, take a look at this site run by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environment...
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What 100 MPGs looks like in 2010
The Automotive X- Prize was launched in 2006-2007 to inspire the creation of the first safe, practical vehicle to achieve 100 miles per gallon. The prize: $10 million.The prize was awarded earlier this...
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Miles per Gallon Rating for the Home
The Earth Advantage Institute has developed a program for evaluating home energy use that they call the "Energy Performance Score" (EPS). They refer to their evaluation system as an "“MPG” or...
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Fiji water is from Fiji
Fiji water comes in a beautiful bottle. I paid attention to the Fiji bottle for the first time when my wife bought one at the Atlanta airport while we waited for a connecting flight. I was struck by...
View ArticleMore Cars Get 40 MPG; Ethanol on the Hill
A couple of Friday articles of interest:From More new cars get 40 mpg, but 'cheap' gas keeps buyers away by Chris Woodyard at USA Today:Automakers are offering more conventional cars that cross the...
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More on Airplane MPG
Since we don't have EPA labels for planes, it is a bit of mystery how efficient they are. Theoretically, they seem to have the potential for great efficiency because of the density of passengers. A...
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Putting US driving in perspective
From the World Development Report 2010Spotted on the website failinggracefully
View ArticleA GPM/CO2/Cost Calculator
Climate Centralhas posted a terrific calculator. Use the calculator below to plug in your own information (driving distance, state, current mpg, possible mpg improvement) and learn the gas savings,...
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New EPA Label
The new EPA labels for cars have been chosen. This page offers details on all the new design elements of the gasoline vehicle sticker.Here is an image from the New York Times:This will be the first US...
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Vespa MPG
If you ride a Vespa (75 MPG) half the time and drive an SUV (21 MPG) half the time, your average MPG will be 48 MPG. True or False?
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Better food metrics
The US Department of Agriculture has a new way to represent nutritional guidelines. The pyramid is gone. The new recommendations are partitions of a plate. Simple and clear.
View ArticleNew CAFE targets for 2025
Aaron Kessler of the Detroit Free Press summarizes a range of perspectives on the 56.2 MPG CAFE standard proposed for 2025. Some interesting passages:Proponents of a higher target say dealers' lots...
View ArticleUpdate on Heavy Duty Trucks
Overdriveonline.com has an article summarizing fuel economy standards for heavy duty trucks. Here are some excerpts.A key takeaway: New trucks are expected to cost $6,220 more because of the rule;...
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Hypermiling, Hypoconsuming.
Avoiding jack rabbit starts and coasting into stop signs can greatly improve the MPG your car gets. These are among a long list of hypermiling techniques that, when carefully applied, have enabled...
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EcoCAR Challenge Results
USA Today has an interesting summary of a 3-year EcoCAR competition sponsored by the Department of Energy and General Motors. The article says:The teams focused on design during the first year, when...
View ArticleHonda Civic Hybrid--Suing over MPG in Small Claims Court
Heather Peters sued Honda in small claims court because her Honda Civic Hybrid did not deliver the 50 MPG promised on the window sticker.The court awarded her $9,867 for "extra money spent on fuel,...
View ArticleHigh MPG in the News
Win $1 BillionRepublicans have created a bill that will provide a $1 billion reward to the first automaker that can sell 60,000 cars that get 100 MPG -- using regular gasoline. No MPGe here.The...
View ArticleWhy not make a whole bunch of 50-miles-per-gallon cars?
John Peterson has a grim analysis of the prospects for electric vehicles: The cost of batteries are so prohibitively high for the foreseeable future, they cannot pay for themselves even if gas were $10...
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When MPG is Overstated
A UK magazine called WhatCar? has launched a website to record driver's real MPG:http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/what-car-true-mpg-winners-and-losers/262497WhatCar? released a report showing that the...
View ArticleQuantity versus Price
A new paper in the Journal of Marketing by Akshay Rao of the University of Minnesota shows that people have a hard time with the following sort of question:When offered the possibility of 33% off a...
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CO2 Emissions, Electric Vehicles, the New EPA Label, and a Great Feature at...
A Scientific American post in April (by Julia Pyper, originally posted on Climatewire) captured a basic challenge facing people who want to buy electric vehicles as a way of reducing greenhouse gas...
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Sunscreen SPF and Diminishing Returns
(Graph courtesy of remixyourhealth)SPF, or Sun Protection Factor, seemed to come out of nowhere in the 1980s as people started to become aware of the need for sunscreen. (Before that, "suntan oil"...
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