Cree is a leading manufacturer of LEDs and the circuitry and components needed to bring them into our homes and businesses. They’ve been growing like crazy and, thankfully, have also managed to hire someone who knows something about social media. That someone decided to show, very clearly, the effects of incandescent lighting on the Easter Bunny. The result? Incandescent lights KILL THE EASTER BUNNY! So if you don’t want the Easter Bunny to die…you should consider investing in some next-generation lighting technology.
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The EPA and the International Maritime Organization have announced stricter emissions regulations for ships operating in the waters off the coast of the U.S. and Canada.
Starting in 2012, ships within 200 nautical miles of the shores will either have to use cleaner, more expensive fuel that contains less sulfur or be equipped with scrubber devices that clean the sulfur dioxide from the exhaust. By 2016, new ships will have to use advanced emissions control systems.
California already implemented an emissions control zone within 24 nautical miles of its shore last year and ships have tried avoiding the area. These new rules extend the control zone along most of North America and much farther out to sea, so avoidance won’t be an option anymore.
The EPA says the emissions controls will reduce U.S. NOx emissions by 1.2 million tons annually and particulate matter emissions by 143,000 tons annually.
via Green Inc.
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First rumored more than a year ago, the much-anticipated US debut of the Toyota iQ is finally upon us… but it’s been badged as a Scion and the expected fuel economy numbers are not really all that impressive when you consider just how tiny this vehicle is. Scion says the car will eek out mileage “in the high 30s.”
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At the 2010 New York Auto Show today Hyundai unveiled its brand new 2011 Sonata Hybrid Bluedrive. The car will be Hyundai’s first hybrid offering when it goes on sale later this year.
Sporting a bunch of firsts on a mass market hybrid including a set of next generation lithium-polymer batteries and a 6 speed automatic transmission, the Sonata Hybrid is a true competitor right out of the gate. As a full parallel hybrid, the Sonata can operate solely on its electric motor or its combustion engine, or a combination of both.
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With the 2011 Lincoln MKZ, Ford has officially entered uncharted territory: competing against Lexus luxury hybrid dominance.
Today, at the 2010 New York Auto Show, Ford officially unveiled the previously rumored Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. Touting its expected 41 mpg city fuel economy and a laundry list of standard features, Ford claims the MKZ Hybrid is a much better value than its closest Lexus competitor, the HS 250h.
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The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) released figures yesterday showing that the global solar photovoltaic industry had a record year in 2009. But it is expecting a lot from 2010 as well.
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“Short-billed” dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus)
April 22 is Earth Day, but for The Nature Conservancy, the day will be celebrated with nature and natural history activities and programs over the entire month.
With its Washington State office head-quartered in Seattle (the organization has offices in all 50 states, with its world-wide office in Arlington, VA), the sixty year old Nature Conservancy funds/supports conservation efforts around the globe. Its stated mission is “to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.”
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Do you support offshore drilling?
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Whatever your opinion on the healthcare bill recently passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, the passage of it has at least allowed discussions on other important topics to resurface. Topics like energy reform. Details of the Kerry-Grahm-Lieberman energy reform bill have started leaking out. Among the topics that stuck out: a new gas tax.
The details don’t make clear how much this new gas tax would be, but it would likely be linked to the carbon content of the fuel. A higher gas tax has been bandied about for decades, and has always shot down rather quickly. The Fed’s collect 18.4 cents per gallon, while the average state gas tax is about 27 cents. So 45 cents of every gallon already goes to either the Feds or the state, and while it may sound like a lot, in actuality it is amongst the lowest tax rates on fuel in the world. How much higher should it go?
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This is a lesson to all weeds: dream big. Camelina is a scrawny looking plant that also goes by the unflattering moniker “false flax,” yet it may turn out to be the biofuel of choice for U.S. military aircraft. The U.S. Air Force has just announced the successful flight of an A-10C Thunderbolt II using a blend of half camelina and half conventional jet fuel, and it plans to test the blend on additional aircraft over the next couple of years. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy has also set its sights on camelina-based jet fuel.
Weed though it may be, camelina has also been cultivated as an oilseed crop for centuries and therein lies its charm, sustainably speaking. Camelina been championed by a number of biofuel companies including Sustainable Oils, which has supplied camelina biofuel for both the Air Force and the Navy test runs. The company may soon have company; Shell (yes, the petroleum company) is set on becoming the biggest of the big-oil companies to use biofuel as a profitability-booster.
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Rapid growth of the solar photovoltaic industry in Europe in recent years has created an extremely fertile market for not only the solar photovoltaic industry, but also for the solar inverter industry. Inverters are devices that are installed in line with solar arrays to convert the direct current (DC) electricity it produces into stable, usable alternating current (AC) found in homes and on the power grid.
The market for inverters has been so robust, in fact, that analysts are suggesting the PV inverter market is set to more than double over the coming years, growing to an estimated $8 billion annually in the next four years.
But because of that healthy PV demand and the fact that there are a growing number of new entrants into the sector, the solar solar inverter industry supply chain is fluid and a bit unstable.
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We’ve all been waiting to hear what exactly Nissan has meant by “competitively priced” when describing the LEAF. Well, now we know. The all-electric sedan will have a sticker price of $32,780, slightly more than expected, but still pretty cheap for an EV.
At that price, the LEAF is a good $10,000 more expensive than gas-fueled sedan models like the Honda Civic, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima, but cheaper than announced prices for EV models like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Coda Automotive’s sedan and far below the nearly $60,000 Tesla Model S. Plug In America calls the price a “game changer” and I’d have to agree.
Not convinced? Here’s more to consider. The price includes the installation of a home charging station, it will be available for lease for $349 a month (not too shabby when you compare it to the mortgage-sized lease payment for the Tesla Roadster) and once you apply federal tax credits, you’re actually looking at a $25,280 car. If you live in a state like California that’s offering an additional $5,000 rebate, that price drops to $20,280.
Now you’re in the territory of a base model Toyota Prius. The cost of a hybrid, but it’s all electric. I have a feeling there are people at GM right now recrunching the numbers for the Chevy Volt.
via Nissan and Earth2Tech
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Volunteers at a forest restoration “work party’ (Nature Consortium)
…one “work party” at a time. The all-volunteer work parties are organized by Nature Consortium, a Seattle based non-profit that also sponsors a Youth Arts Program and an Arts in Nature Festival. Work parties are held year round, usually over a two-day period each week. The restoration project’s efforts concentrate on planting native species (such as native conifers, it’s main ecological goal), eradication of invasive species, site maintenance and environmental education.
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Alex SteffenGreenpeace has launched a new campaign warning about “Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change.” The cloud is growing at a time when climate…
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High speed rail in the United States is off to a clumsy start. After the Obama administration announced it would be dolling out billions of dollars to high speed rail projects around the country, states started putting together project proposals and the like to get their cut of the funding. Then the numbers came in; California would get a lion’s share of the money, followed by the MidWest, Florida, Texas, and the Northeast.
Unfortunately it looks like the most “shovel ready” of the HSR projects, the proposed line between Tampa and Orlando, is already running into problems. For one, it wouldn’t make the commute between the two cities all that much shorter… so why bother?
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