THINK ELECTRIC TRUCKS FIRST. by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News
If I were a gambling man I’d wager that fleet-operated, battery-electric urban delivery vans become a commercial success before battery-electric personal motorcars. The reasons are simple: Company image and solid balance sheet performance.
With company name, logo and clean-drive promotion emblazoned on the side, who wouldn’t notice the truck that was perfectly quiet and emitted no fumes or smoke? For those environmentally concerned, who wouldn’t choose between the company that operated the “green” trucks as opposed to the one that didn’t?
Depending on the nature of fleet operations, the balance sheet may justify the additional outlay for electric drive. On a spread sheet analysis, lower operating costs may prove the electrically-driven vehicle the winner over the diesel version. Companies that operate fleets don’t just drive vehicles, they manage them. Carefully charted daily and long term mileage that analyzes “electric fuel” cost, lower maintenance costs, longevity, and possible tax incentives could prove in favor of electric drive. The ability to own and operate their own electric refueling stations at company facilities may give another spread sheet nudge to electric drive.
Given the above arguments it’s no wonder that Ford in the U.S. has chosen to offer an electrified truck – the battery version of its Transit Connect commercial van – before it attempts to sell an electric car.
LIVING IN THE ONION SKIN. by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News
President Obama is set to jet off to the UN climate summit Copenhagen with a basket of greenhouse gas cutting proposals from the U.S. Don’t be disappointed if little comes of this for months. He needs Congress fully behind any commitments. The House is ready to roll. The Senate is dragging its feet on a climate and energy bill.
If both houses can’t agree on a bill by late Winter or early Spring, action on climate change may be another year wasted away. 2010 is an election year. Congress and Obama are already on ice thinner than the greenhouse gas-warmed Arctic. Unemployment is expected to be high in November. Voters won’t be in any mood to accept any potentially life-altering, wallet-pinching mandates from Washington, no matter what size they may be.
Congressmen are watching their cozy seats very carefully.
Obama and Congress would have an easier time at passing climate legislation if more constituents were behind them on the issue. Unfortunately not all Americans are believers in global warming. Not all are convinced it’s a problem.
There’s a reason that not all Americans are convinced. They’ve been poorly educated on the subject for years. Those doing the convincing – scientists, politicians, educators, environmental organizations, the media (including Green Energy News, as small as it is) – have done an inadequate job of telling the story, of educating the general public. Trust us, they’ve said, we know better, without even bothering to discuss some of the most basic things about the planet and the science of global warming. They’ve used scare tactics (the glaciers are melting, the seas are rising) to try to convince people that something is wrong. But they’ve rarely spoken in plain understandable language about what’s happening to our only home. It is their job to teach and they’ve failed - which is why so many are skeptical.
"Air
Freshener" is directed by the Coen brothers, and we're proud to say it's
Reality's latest ad -- calling out the coal industry's ridiculous claims that
coal is clean as only the Coen brothers can. Watch it here
We Can Solve It
The About Us section on their website:
The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. The goal of the Alliance is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis -- in part through repowering America with 100 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources within 10 years. Our economy, national security, and climate can’t afford to wait.