Gerri Willis answers reader's questions.
Sandwiched between two nondescript commercial buildings in a vacant lot squats what looks like a long, plastic-shrouded greenhouse. Hanging nearby is a cluster of five-foot-long plastic sacks bulging with green slime that resemble intravenous drip bags for the Jolly Green Giant. It doesn't look like groundbreaking technology, but these scum bags in Cambridge, Mass., just might help save the planet.
Thirty years ago, the last time the world faced an oil crisis, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) launched a program to analyze the potential algae had as a renewable fuel. It didn't take it long to realize algae was a godsend.
Texas may be best known for "Big Oil." But the oil that could some day make a dent in the country's use of fossil fuels is small. Microscopic, in fact: algae. Literally and figuratively, this is green fuel.
Some Florida amusement park visitors may enjoy space-themed roller-coasters, but the first vehicle they board at Orlando International Airport may be the most futuristic ride of their vacation.
No subject appears to divide as many people in the climate change arena as biofuels. Their potential to positively impact greenhouse gas emissions is undoubtedly enormous.
Gasoline use over the next two decades is expected to soar as developing nations get richer and more people there buy cars, but gas alone won't be able to shoulder the burden.
Two new studies show that biofuels aren't the solution to global warming -- and may even exacerbate the problem
On a beautiful, crisp late fall afternoon, rock icon Neil Young took his 1959 Lincoln Continental for one last spin before a team of mechanics ripped out its gas-guzzling engine to make way for an electric motor.
To country legend Willie Nelson, the sweet smell of success may no longer be a great critical review or best-selling album. It might be the smell of french fries.
Gerri Willis answers reader's questions.
Sandwiched between two nondescript commercial buildings in a vacant lot squats what looks like a long, plastic-shrouded greenhouse. Hanging nearby is a cluster of five-foot-long plastic sacks bulging with green slime that resemble intravenous drip bags for the Jolly Green Giant. It doesn't look like groundbreaking technology, but these scum bags in Cambridge, Mass., just might help save the planet.
Thirty years ago, the last time the world faced an oil crisis, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) launched a program to analyze the potential algae had as a renewable fuel. It didn't take it long to realize algae was a godsend.
Texas may be best known for "Big Oil." But the oil that could some day make a dent in the country's use of fossil fuels is small. Microscopic, in fact: algae. Literally and figuratively, this is green fuel.
Some Florida amusement park visitors may enjoy space-themed roller-coasters, but the first vehicle they board at Orlando International Airport may be the most futuristic ride of their vacation.
No subject appears to divide as many people in the climate change arena as biofuels. Their potential to positively impact greenhouse gas emissions is undoubtedly enormous.
Gasoline use over the next two decades is expected to soar as developing nations get richer and more people there buy cars, but gas alone won't be able to shoulder the burden.
Two new studies show that biofuels aren't the solution to global warming -- and may even exacerbate the problem
On a beautiful, crisp late fall afternoon, rock icon Neil Young took his 1959 Lincoln Continental for one last spin before a team of mechanics ripped out its gas-guzzling engine to make way for an electric motor.
To country legend Willie Nelson, the sweet smell of success may no longer be a great critical review or best-selling album. It might be the smell of french fries.
Way back in 2006, John "Bish" Neuhauser was the poster child of the biodiesel business. The shaggy-looking snow groomer for the Canyons ski area near Park City, Utah, starred in the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival documentary on global warming, "Everything's Cool," in which he made his own biodiesel out of restaurant grease and converted all of the resort's vehicles to run on it. In 2007, however, Neuhauser no longer has to brew his own fuel - he just drives to nearby Salt Lake City, where manufactured soybean biodiesel is now available at seven pumps. "Making it is fun and liberating," he says, "but I'm just too busy."
Can a poisonous plant become a biodiesel hero and help African economies in the process?
Archer Daniels Midland Co. said Monday its quarterly profit more than doubled, largely due to one-time gains of more than $600 million, though its processing businesses were hurt by a drop in ethanol sales volume and declining margins in some lines.
There's something disconcerting about driving a high-speed oval for the first time, and it's easy to identify: As you approach either of the steeply banked turns, you don't slow down.
Three months ago, Kevin Wall sold his Mercedes. He still misses it. "It was a brand-new, unbelievable car," Wall says. "I had to take a financial hit to get rid of it."
General Motors is shifting about 500 engineers within the company with the aim of having the first fuel-cell-powered car on the market as soon as 2010, according to published reports.
For a company poised to revolutionize an industry, Firefly Energy is pretty hard to find. It's temporarily headquartered in a former mental-health facility that's now part of a community college, a...
After ten years of flying jets for Northwest Airlines, John Plaza decided during a long, cold layover that he wanted to change the world. "I was flying cargo planes from Anchorage to Tokyo," says P...
When the aspen Ski Company launched its environment division -- a kind of green management team, think tank and consultancy -- it was the first of its kind in the ski industry: an in-house watchdog to prevent the resort from gorging on energy and trampling its fragile ecosystem. Ten years later, the division's director, Auden Schendler, spends at least as much time thinking about saving Aspen as he does about saving its environment. Both, it turns out, are highly vulnerable to climate change.
Ever since President Bush proposed a four-fold increase in "alternative fuels" during this year's State of the Union address, the media has been abuzz with doomsday reports on what this will do to the price of corn.
The belief that General Motors has all the environmental sensitivity of a panda fur wholesaler has been widespread for a long time.
General Motors is working on a plug-in hybrid version of its redesigned Saturn Vue SUV, the company's CEO announced today at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
Sick and tired of soaring gas prices? Now you can build your own alternative fuel plant and set your own limits.
So, what would you do if you were elected president?
It would be so easy to disparage the BMW Hydrogen 7, the world's first production-ready hydrogen car and a guaranteed showstopper when it's unveiled next month at the Los Angeles Motor Show.
Auto-racing legend Mario Andretti has met his share of corporate bigwigs over the years - though none, he says, quite as memorable as Patricia Woertz. The suits usually ask him the same questions a...
International borders used to be the biggest barrier to entry for Americans interested in starting a business overseas. But today, as more nations ease trade regulations and restrictions on foreign...
Auto-racing legend Mario Andretti has met his share of corporate bigwigs over the years - though none, he says, quite as memorable as Patricia Woertz. The suits usually ask him the same questions as the fans: What was your scariest wreck? What's it like to be one of only two drivers to win both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500? And just how frustrating were all those losses at Le Mans?
Ethanol producer Hawkeye Holdings postponed its initial public offering this week, the latest setback for makers of the alternative fuel and a sign more tough times may be ahead.
Stop. Reboot. Roll! In the future, that might be the most common advice from your friendly neighborhood gas jockey. Except he would be pumping hydrogen, not gas. And while your future car would loo...
BMW has announced that it will produce a limited number of hydrogen-powered luxury performance cars in 2007.
Downtown Salt Lake City is not the world's easiest place to operate a bar. Mormons dominate the population, and although some Mormons do consume alcohol, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Sa...
When auto sales were totaled up for July, a pair of historic shifts took place.
The growing myth that corn is a cure-all for our energy woes is leading us toward a potentially dangerous global fight for food. While crop-based ethanol -the latest craze in alternative energy - p...
Argentina is a prime market for making and selling renewable biodiesel fuel thanks to cheap land and labor, as well as bumper crops of soybeans.
CNN.com asked users for their ideas on the best way to fuel America and break the country's dependence on fossil fuels, especially from foreign sources. Here is a sampling of the responses, some of which have been edited:
As gas prices keep soaring, Washington has rolled out a number of proposals to ease the pain at the pump: a $100 rebate check, delaying deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased fuel efficiency, alternative fuel research and more.
Venture capital investors are flocking to clean energy technologies, a market expected to grow to $167 billion worldwide in the next decade, but some in the sector worry about too much money chasing too few deals.
Gas prices are soaring. The average price of a gallon of regular gas, $2.83, is 27 percent higher than last year, according to the motorists' organization AAA, and the peak vacation driving season is still ahead.
Trying to invest in ethanol and biofuels today is a bit like Internet investing in the '90s. Most of the publicly traded companies are pint-sized crapshoots, and it's not yet clear whether the early-to-the-game blue chips are pursuing the best strategies. So there are going to be many, many more pets.coms than eBays in agrifuels. More Time Warners than Microsofts. Indeed, many of the venture capitalists bankrolling tomorrow's ethanol IPOs (see "How to Beat the High Cost of Gasoline Forever!") are the same folks who funded the '90s dot-com debacle.
Trying to invest in ethanol and biofuels today is a bit like Internet investing in the '90s. Most of the publicly traded companies are pint-sized crapshoots, and it's not yet clear whether the early-to-the-game blue chips are pursuing the best strategies.
FORGET "WHISKEY RIVER." WILLIE NELSON has a new fuel of choice. He is rollin' toward California "about an hour west of Large Bird, N.M.," on his tour bus. That's apropos, actually, because he's talking about biodiesel, a mix of regular diesel and refined vegetable oil that happens to be the fuel in the bus. Nelson is America's foremost proponent of biodiesel, most visibly as the marketer of a brand called BioWillie. It's for sale at 12 gas stations, the majority in Texas, including his own truck stop, Carl's Corner in Hillsboro, south of Dallas.
The days of filling your pickup with unleaded while munching shrink-wrapped beef jerky may be numbered if Ottawa-based Topia Energy has its way. In September the company, Canada's largest producer ...
The stubby Honda two-door cut through Manhattan traffic like a skateboard. It accelerated smoothly, braked quietly, and-best of all-consumed no gasoline and generated no greenhouse gases. Sticker price: upwards of $1 million.
A lot may be riding on the compact Honda being leased by the Spallino family of Redondo Beach, Calif., for $500 a month.
The debate over the best medium-term solution for cleaner cars looks set to lengthen as auto executives in Japan for the Tokyo auto show this week discussed more, not fewer, options for weaning cars off oil.
Where are the best places to see how tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies will change the world? That depends on what technology you hope to see. Thanks to globalization, outsourcing, and digital t...
New research published by American scientists may have brought the prospect of filling up your tank with green gas a little bit closer.
Shortly before the House began debate Wednesday on an energy bill aimed primarily at making the country less dependent on overseas oil, a House committee chairman involved in the legislation bluntly dismissed a key provision to boost the use of hydrogen fuels.
Despite President Bush's inclusion of a $1.5 billion investment in hydrogen fuel for cars in the 2004 tax bill, widespread use is probably 50 years away because of high costs and difficulties in co...
Once again, the North American International Auto Show, held in Detroit earlier this month, highlighted both the best and worst in fuel economy.
Once again, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit highlighted both the best and worst in fuel economy.
AS IF IT DIDN'T HAVE enough to do on its quest for bigness, BMW has also decided to reinvent the internal-combustion engine. For chairman Panke it is more than a diverting engineering exercise. He ...
London may be well known for its big red buses, but things are turning green on the city's streets.
Every day brings another culprit. On Aug. 5 it was word that crude exports from Russia's massive Yukos Oil might be in jeopardy, as authorities there said they were once again freezing the company'...
Tony Scott has a simple message for people who make hardware and software: Listen to your customers or risk losing them. As both carrot and stick, General Motors's affable chief technology officer ...
Sen. John Kerry's accusations that President Bush's policies favor the oil industry, contributing to the high cost of gasoline, won't affect how many Texas A&M students will vote in the presidential election.
On a rotating stage bathed in blue light, the vehicle looked otherworldly, like something from far in the future. It was called the Autonomy, and vaguely resembled a giant skateboard. The only feat...
As the luncheon at the swank Miami resort begins, Mary Tolan takes a seat and braces herself. After weeks of frantic preparation, Tolan, a superstar at the big consulting firm Accenture, has just u...
Every job I ever had, people always seemed to want to think small," says Geoffrey Ballard by way of explaining why he went into business for himself. The 70-year-old Canadian engineer--whose effort...
Now here's a social dilemma: Say Cameron Diaz calls to ask if she can come over to your house right after the post-Oscars parties. You're tickled, of course. Then you realize in a panic that you do...
If you're willing to set aside for a moment the gigantic chicken-and-egg problem of where to get the hydrogen to run a new generation of efficient, nonpolluting hydrogen-powered cars, General Motor...
If you're willing to set aside the gigantic chicken-and-egg problem of where to get the hydrogen for a new generation of hydrogen-powered cars, then GM has a hell of a story to tell. The automaker ...
As far back as Jules Verne, visionaries have predicted that society will someday be utterly transformed by energy based on hydrogen. The lightweight gas, the most abundant element in the universe, ...
Maybe you think driving a car that runs on anything other than gas is as preposterous as the idea of an underpowered Ferrari or a nonsmoking supermodel. But if you don't believe we are at a scienti...
Bright-eyed, his silver hair a little wild at the fringes, Dr. Ferdinand Panik, 56, clearly relishes piloting a very special Mercedes vehicle briskly past the apple orchards on the outskirts of Nab...
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