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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:June 16, 2004

*News and Events Ford Announces Pricing for Escape Hybrid California Proposes Cuts in Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions New Standards Boost Promise for Hydrogen Fueling Stations Office Depot and Whole Foods Market Buy Green Power New Energy Technologies to Yield Longer Run Times for Laptops U.S. Research Groups Investigate Wave Energy Technologies *Energy NewsBP Releases “Statistical Review of World Energy 2004” News and EventsFord Announces Pricing for Escape HybridFord Motor Company announced Monday that its 2005 Escape Hybrid will be priced from $3,300 to $3,425 above a comparably equipped V6-powered Escape. The base price for the Escape Hybrid will be $26,380, plus destination and delivery charges of $590, for a total of $26,970. The four-wheel-drive version of the Escape Hybrid will cost $28,005, plus the destination and delivery charge. According to Ford, the Escape Hybrid will qualify for a “Clean Fuel Vehicles” federal tax deduction of $1,500 if purchased this year. See the Ford press release.Ford claims the Escape Hybrid to be the world’s cleanest and most fuel-efficient sport utility vehicle. It has the ability to run on electric power only at low speeds, and can also run using the gasoline engine only or using the combined power of the gasoline […]

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Car Owners Turn to Vegetable Oil For Fuel

With gas prices going higher and higher, some Americans are getting creative. A recent Associated Press article reported than more people are fueling their cars with vegetable oil from their favorite restaurants. Every other week, Etta Kantor picks up a few buckets of used oil from her local Chinese restaurant to fuel her Volkswagen Jetta. When she gets home, she simply uses a colander and a bag filter to remove water and any food particles. Then she pours the oil into a 15-gallon tank that sits in the back of her Jetta, where a spare tire would usually be kept. With a touch of a button, located above the radio, Kantor can switch from diesel fuel to vegetable oil in seconds.“Oh, I zip around town, go fast on highways. It’s not any different,” said Kantor.Restaurants have to pay to get rid of their old vegetable oil and are happy to give it away for free.Shawn Reilly, a co-owner of a restaurant, says it saves them $40-$60 a month not having to get garbage pick-up for it. Aaron Schlechter picks up 30-40 gallons twice a month from the restaurant for his 170-mile daily commute. He says, “The only way I can […]

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Starbucks Supports Calvert in Sustaining Fairtrade Coffee Farmers

EcoLogic Enterprise Ventures (EEV) ($250,000) is a “green” loan fund that provides affordable financing to eco-enterprises located in environmentally sensitive areas of Latin America. Targeting the rural credit market, EEV provides small business loans to support coffee cooperatives and other businesses that foster biodiversity conservation and grassroots economic development. EEV has made 47 loans worth $4.8 million to rural enterprises engaged in organic and fair-trade agriculture, sustainable fishing and ecotourism. Prodecoop ($200,000) – Founded in 1991, The Promoter of Cooperative Development in the Segovias (PRODECOOP) provides credit assistance and training programs to small farmer cooperatives in Central and South America. 71 co-ops comprise PRODECOOP, which sells high-quality organic coffee to countries around the world. PRODECOOP was pivotal in providing disaster relief to Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 so that coffee farmers could maintain their income. Starbucks and Calvert have worked together domestically for the past three years. In 2001, Starbucks provided $150,000 to help finance affordable housing and non-profit/small-business facilities in low-income communities across North America. Starbucks investments through Calvert have helped support The Low Income Housing Fund in San Francisco, the Corporation for Open Land in Illinois, and ACCION New York, Inc. Calvert Community Investments is a pooled […]

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Energizing Wood Power: Replacing Fossil Fuels

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Bio-Lubricant Named World's Best Technology

Agro Management Group (Colorado Springs, CO) was honored recently for its patented technology which enables plant-based lubricants to be used instead of petroleum in internal combustion engines. Sterling Bio-Technologies Corp. was formed in 2003 to bring this technology to market and holds an exclusive license to manufacture and sell lubricants based on the technology in the U.S. and Canada. The Sterling Grade” products are made from a base of 100% vegetable oil – including canola, sunflower and soybean – which is blended with additives to produce engine oils and other lubricants. The lubricants can be used in automotive and small engine applications. In addition to providing a market-ready alternative to petroleum-based engine oils that comes from renewable, agricultural products, these lubricants have added benefits including reductions in engine wear, tailpipe emissions and gasoline consumption. They are are also biodegradable and non-toxic. Despite the long-recognized superiority of plant-based oils over petroleum-based oils as lubricants, plant-based oils have not been previously been considered suitable for use in internal combustion engines because they lacked stability needed for high temperature applications. Carol Werner, Sterling’s chief executive officer. “The recognition of the technology as “World’s Best” by the participants in the adds independent support to […]

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