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Some bumps in the road to saving the planet.
By Judith Lewis
August 15, 2008

IT SEEMED, AT THE TIME, like such a good thing for the planet. In the winter of 2005, I turned in my red, gas-hungry Jeep Wrangler for a near-new, diesel-burning Volkswagen Beetle. Inspired by a number of pioneering friends, I would fill my little green slug Bug with a nontoxic, sweet- smelling fuel made from vegetable matter called biodiesel.

Unlike cars that run on straight, unprocessed vegetable oil, my BioBug required no mechanical conversion. Diesel fuel can be made out of any kind of grease: petroleum, lard, soybean oil, even, as one New Zealand powerboat racer proved two years ago, liposuctioned fat from human hindquarters. With a weatherproof shed and two 55-gallon drums, I turned my driveway into a home fueling station. And there, in full view of my greener-than-thou neighbors, I smugly filled my tank.

I never expected to save much money. Unless you brew it yourself with methane and lye, biodiesel is expensive. (This spring, it topped $5 a gallon.) I considered the cost worth the payoff. Biodiesel smells not like French fries but clean and nutty; if you spill a little on your skin, no worries—unlike gas, it won’t poison you. Diesel engines emit more smog-forming nitrogen oxides than do their gasoline equivalents, but on balance, biodiesel burns cleaner than petroleum diesel or gasoline. Plus, the biodiesel crops take carbon dioxide from the air as they grow and release the same amount back into the atmosphere when they burn. Biofuels are thus said to be “carbon-neutral” fuels.

Which doesn’t mean, I soon learned, that they are perfect.

Proposition 10 would put California taxpayers on the hook for his natural gas plan.

By Anthony Rubenstein
July 29, 2008

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is pushing a national campaign to make the U.S. “energy independent” through wind power and vehicles that run on natural gas. His blitz of TV ads featuring his own down-home voice has picked up a lot of admiring news coverage. To date, Pickens has yet to explain whose dime will pay for this.

Well, Californians can clarify exactly whose dime it will be: Ours. Along with being the country’s biggest wind power developer, Pickens owns Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a natural gas fueling station company that is the sole backerof the stealthy Proposition 10 on California’s November ballot. This measure would authorize the sale of $5 billion in general fund bonds to provide alternative energy rebates and incentives—but by the time the principal and the interest is paid off, it would squander at least $9.8 billion in taxpayer money on Pickens’ self-serving natural gas agenda.

The initiative deceptively reads like it’s supporting all alternative-fuel vehicles and renewable energy sources. But a closer read finds a laundry list of cash grabs—from $200 million for a liquefied natural gas terminal to $2.5 billion for rebates of up to $50,000 for each natural gas vehicle.

Much of the measure’s billions could benefit Pickens’ company to the exclusion of almost all other clean-vehicle fuels and technology. Engines that run on compressed natural gas have a place in pollution reduction, especially for heavy trucks and public buses. But natural gas is a nonrenewable fossil fuel that we import from foreign sources, and it is no better (and in some cases worse) when it comes to emissions and fuel efficiency compared with the best hybrid cars or the new ultra-clean diesel engines. Most insidiously, Proposition 10’s lavish rebates for natural gas-powered cars and trucks could crowd out superior technologies from taking root in California, the largest transportation market in the United States.

By Terry Gardner, Special to The Los Angeles Times
11:21 AM PDT, July 11, 2008

Travelers, you’ve made your voices heard. Whether you want to lessen your pain at the pump or reduce your carbon footprint (or both), you can find more hybrid and biofuel-powered rental cars these days.

Just remember, though, that you may be going green, but you won’t necessarily be saving green.

If you’re in L.A., San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., Atlanta or Miami, you’ll have a good shot at finding a hybrid.

Here’s who’s doing what:

* Enterprise, National and Alamo rent Ford, Toyota and Saturn hybrids, and they offer carbon offsets through TerraPass, a company that strives to reduce the negative effects on the climate of driving a car.

Renters contribute $1.25 per rental, and TerraPass uses funds for an emissions-offset project. It includes clean energy, such as wind farms; creating energy from farm animal waste; or capturing methane from landfills.