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A World War II-era air traffic network that often forces planes to take longer, zigzagging routes is costing U.S. airlines billions of dollars in wasted fuel while an upgrade to a satellite-based system has languished in the planning stages for more than a decade. The $35 billion plan would replace the current radar system with the kind of GPS technology that has become commonplace in cars and cell phones. Supporters say it would triple air traffic capacity, reduce delays by at least half, improve safety and curb greenhouse gas emissions. An AP analysis of federal and industry data found that...

Folks, I spoke with a few Iowans I know and they report that many of their friends and relatives back home want to vote for McCain. But they want him to reverse his position and support Ethanol. Since McCain is the only candidate on record supporting a freeze on government spending, I think its a good idea for him to SUPPORT ethanol, and cut something else instead in its place.

WASHINGTON: The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve the Indo-US nuclear deal that would allow the US to provide nuclear materials to India. While there was bi-partisan support for the Bill, a considerable number of Democrats voted against the Bill moved by party colleague Howard Berman, an opponent of the measure who was persuaded to change his line. While 120 Democrats voted for the Bill, 107 Democrats voted against. Of the Republicans, 178 voted for and 10 voted against. The deal still faces major obstacles in the Senate. The accord reverses three decades of US policy by shipping atomic...

Wed September 24, 2008Fuel-Saving Converter's Results Drive Optimism By Debbie Blossom Business Writer With today's fuel prices, a nationwide focus has shifted to vehicles that can squeeze more miles out of a tank of gasoline. And as American automakers push to produce cars and trucks sporting better gas mileage and fewer emissions, one local manufacturing company has created a fuel-saving converter that has proved it can produce better mileage while also helping improve air quality. At Blumenthal Cos., a 59-year-old Oklahoma City company that remanufactures engines, a tested converter that boosts fuel savings came about almost by accident as the...

Nik Bristow and Brian Pierce with Fitzgerald+CO advertising raising nationalawareness for alternative fuels with the help of Willie Nelson’s BioWillie® Premium Biodiesel. Atlanta, GA, September 22, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Nik Bristow and Brian Pierce, copywriters with Fitzgerald+CO in Atlanta, are two guys on a mission to change the way Americans view alternative fuels. At 10 p.m. EST tonight, they will depart from SoHo in New York City on “Willie Run ‘08”, the first-ever non-stop, cross-country trek powered entirely by Willie Nelson’s own BioWillie® biodiesel. “I know the trip sounds crazy, but it’s more important now than ever,” said Bristow. “We’re...

Scientist Discovers New Hydrogen System that Cheaply Converts Water into Fuel If researcher Vic Lawson had his way, Americans would laugh in the faces of Big Oil as they confidently drove their vehicles cross-country, paying pennies for a trip that would normally cost hundreds of dollars in fuel. (New York, NY): Fortunately, this is no dream, as Lawson did end up getting his way - his environmentally friendly company Gas4Free just published a set of controversial e-books proven to convert car and truck engines so that they use both water and gas as fuel. His water-fuel conversion system is cost-efficient,...

Alternative energy doesn't always mean solar or wind power. In fact, the alternative fuels developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical and biological engineering professor James Dumesic look a lot like the gasoline and diesel fuel used in vehicles today. That's because the new fuels are identical at the molecular level to their petroleum-based counterparts. The only difference is where they come from. Click Here! Funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, Dumesic and his team have developed a process that creates transportation fuels from plant material. The paper, published in the Sept. 18 online version...

It runs on water -- Jeff Falk demonstrates his hydrogen powered generator. It uses an electrolyzer to break the water down into hydrogen and oxygen, then burns the hydrogen for fuel. It produces zero carbon emissions and is "very safe." Falk's goal is to get off the grid completely. Photo By Don Lee EUREKA SPRINGS -- Are the high prices of fuel getting to you? Do you cringe whenever you pull up to the pumps, or when the electric bill arrives in the mail? If the answer is yes, it's a safe bet most Americans share your concern. But Jeff...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The request caught dairy farmer Brian Ziehm off guard: Would he devote an acre of his fields near the Vermont line this fall to grow stinkweed? "It was like, 'What the heck? I've been trying to get rid of these things for 30 years. Now you want me to plant them?'" But Ziehm happily agreed to grow the hardy weed called field pennycress — a.k.a. stinkweed — to help test a potential new source of fuel for the booming biodiesel market. A handful of fields around upstate New York will be planted with pennycress later this...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is trying to figure out if more than 150 underground fuel tanks -- including one each in Clifton and Lodi -- are leaking diesel fuel into the soil and groundwater. First, though, they need to find out where they are. The agency knows of at least 150 underground tanks, some of which were built for federal emergency storage dating back to the 1950s, that need to be inspected for leaks, according to spokeswoman Debbie Wing. FEMA also is trying to determine by September whether an additional 124 tanks are underground or aboveground and whether they...

I personally dug up this "Treasure" and thought about what it meant to someone who lost it. I imagine that the dime was an emergency fund because it was solidly stuck to this gas cap. I really wanted to share it with the world because I think its a great visual aid. Feel free to distribute this image widely. I believe that the cap is from a gas can. I have since removed the dime from the cap but am in the process of trying to clean it up. I know that in the 20's one dime was about an...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Here’s proof that hard economic times are affecting everyone: Diddy now has to fly commercial. Sean “Diddy” Combs has posted a YouTube video complaining that fuel prices are so high he’s had to stop flying in private jets.

Bangalore, Aug. 26 A US-based company is all set to bring to India a hydrogen generator kit which can reduce fuel costs for passenger and other vehicles by as much as 30 per cent. EcoMobil’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr K.B. Prasad, told Business Line that his company will soon introduce in India an eco-friendly auto kit called the Hfactor which will cost less than Rs 20,000 and can run on a single charge for over 3,500 km. “Once we start manufacturing these kits in India, we expect the costs to come down further. We have targeted revenues of...

Saying we need to break the country’s addiction to fossil fuels, presidential candidate Senator Obama proposed that the nation “exploit it abundant human resources.” Rather than permit oil drilling in Alaska or offshore, Obama suggested that clean energy could be generated by “pedal-power.” Obama boasted that his plan would “not only address the energy crisis, but would simultaneously fight obesity and unemployment.” “We see that a majority of Americans are overweight,” Obama observed. “Why not put these people to work in a way that will not only supply power, but help them slim down?” Under the plan, the 5 million...

Dan wanted to know if there was a legitimate claim behind those companies that offer better gas mileage through water-based contraptions in your car. Here's what he said: Recently I was introduced to a "Water4Gas" system that claims it can boost an internal combustion engine's gas mileage by 10 to 100 percent. The person trying to push/sell this innovative system (that I hear has been around already for quite some time) is named: Ozzie Freedom' (probably not his real name). It's being marketed as an "experimental add-on" that eliminates carbon deposits in the cylinders, boosts performance, and prevents smog. It's...

AUSTIN, TX, Aug 21, 2008 Ronn Motor Company, today announced its successful completion of initial track testing for the Scorpion(TM) eco-exotic. During a rigorous evaluation, the highly anticipated 40 mpg eco-exotic performed superbly, delivering the caliber of outstanding performance expected from a 200 mph supercar. The car completed several high-speed passes, along with high-speed/high-angle turns, acceleration and high-speed braking tests. Portions of the test can be viewed on YouTube.com by searching "Ronn Motors" or clicking on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y_gumpBuko. COO and test driver Damon Kuhn, said, "The platform performed very well under stress in all technical areas. Even with...

Calculated bioethanol yield per hectare. A study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists found that sweet potatoes grown in Maryland and Alabama, and tropical cassava grown in Alabama, yielded between two to three times as much carbohydrate (starch, sucrose, glucose) for fuel ethanol production via fermentation as field corn grown in those states. Dr. Lew Ziska, a plant physiologist at the ARS Crop Systems and Global Change Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., and colleagues at Beltsville and at the ARS National Soil Dynamics Laboratory in Auburn, Ala., performed the study. The research is unique in comparing the root crops to...

Confronted by multi-dimensionsal changes in its underlying ecosystem, automakers should focus on five key areas of differentiation to position themselves for success in 2020 and beyond. Summary The automotive ecosystem is in the midst of significant change, with increasing challenges in consumer demands, technology development, globalization, integration and collaboration. A new era is rapidly approaching in which the very definition of personal mobility will change. Multi-modal transportation will become increasingly common, and intelligent vehicles will cater to diverse consumer needs for information, environmental responsibility and safety. Automotive companies are racing to develop new business models to help them maintain responsible...

Oil production has begun falling at all of the major Western oil companies, and they are finding it harder than ever to find new prospects even though they are awash in profits and eager to expand. Part of the reason is political. From the Caspian Sea to South America, Western oil companies are being squeezed out of resource-rich provinces. They are being forced to renegotiate contracts on less-favorable terms and are fighting losing battles with assertive state-owned oil companies. And much of their production is in mature regions that are declining, like the North Sea. The reality, experts say, is...

At what price will corn be so expensive that the federal government will decide that it is time to stop driving up the price of food? Three years ago, Congress imposed a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate that has forced the gasoline industry to mix massive amounts of corn-based ethanol into the nation's fuel supply. In 2007, Congress nearly doubled that mandate to require nine billion gallons of ethanol be blended into gas in 2008 and even more in 2009. But, as a safety valve, Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to waive the new mandates if...

After batting down the hype over startups and DIYers claiming they could run a car on water, PM's senior automotive editor installs a hand-built HHO kit—only to find he was right the first time. Can bad chemistry keep the myth of the water car alive? More heavy testing in the PM garage will tell. Water-powered cars continue to be the largest single topic taking over my in box—and the Comments section of this Web site. And it's not just my recent column on the truth about water-chugging prototypes. This trend has become an obsession with many backyard inventors, and some...

LOS ANGELES (August 7, 2008) – Rentech, Inc. (AMEX:RTK) today announced that the Company has successfully produced synthetic fuels at its Product Demonstration Unit (PDU) in Commerce City, Colorado. Rentech’s PDU is the only synthetic fuels facility in the United States today producing transportation fuels. The facility is designed to produce approximately 420 gallons per day of synthetic jet and diesel fuels and demonstrates the successful design, construction and operation of a fully-integrated synthetic fuels facility utilizing the Rentech Process. D. Hunt Ramsbottom, President and CEO of Rentech, said “The initial production run of ultra clean synthetic fuels at our...

With claims of a cleaner, faster burn, hydrogen generators get a test drive. Nik Fischer, an installer at Donny’s 4 Wheel Drive World, removes a hydrogen generator from a Cadillac Escalade and prepares to replace it with an updated one. Fischer says this Escalade’s emissions are down 80 percent since its installation. PHOTO BY KAT KERLIN Gas prices have topped the $4 dollar mark across the nation, leaving some car-dependent people a little twitchy about a daily fuel fix. Oil now dances a reckless jig between $120 and $150 dollars a barrel, and many think the environment is now in...

After the acquisition of upscale British brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motors and the launch of its Rs1 lakh small car Nano, Tata Motors are making a giant stride towards history – making a car that runs on compressed air. Tata Motors has signed an agreement with Moteur Development International (MDI) of France to develop a car that runs on compressed air, thus making travel very economical and totally pollution free. Although there is no official word yet on the roll-out of the car, it is expected to be for commercially will be commercially manufactured for India,...

Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which oil may be produced. The regulations would provide for a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands in the West. [Photo Credit: Argonne National Laboratory] WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of the InteriorÂ’s Bureau of Land Management today published proposed regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the western United States. In keeping with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Mineral Leasing Act...

Prominent Alaska Natives met with state political leaders Tuesday in Anchorage to discuss what should be done to fix rural Alaska's energy crisis. The quickly arranged meeting at the Hotel Captain Cook coincides with a major debate under way in Juneau: legislators are weighing a bill to provide one-time energy rebates to all Alaska residents to help them pay for skyrocketing fuel prices. The timing of the event was no accident. Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, pointed out that legislation is in flux. "We're making it clear (to legislators) how much people are hurting," she said....

You would think a car that didn't make loud engine sounds and offered a calm and silent ride would be a commercial winner. But supercar firm Lotus is putting the noise back into their electric and hybrid motors because of road safety fears. The company has started a project to synthesise the sound of a traditional engine in otherwise quiet vehicles and have installed speakers in their Toyota Prius. They are concerned that silent cars could pose a threat to pedestrians and cyclists who may not hear them coming. Despite their environmental credentials, electric and hybrid vehicles have come in...

Honda today announced that they have delivered their second Hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle. The lucky recipient of the car is actress Jamie Lee Curtis, took delivery of the vehicle on July 31, 2008. Curtis and her family will be one of 200 customers who will be leasing the vehicles from Honda. Honda and its customers will test the state of the art vehicles for the next three years. "I really wasn't expecting it to be so luxurious," said Curtis. "It's luxurious, luxurious, luxurious! I love the interior layout, design and access to controls. It is user-friendly and very modern."...

In 2003 President Bush announced a $1.2 billion initiative to make fuel cells commercially viable over a 16-year period. Five years later, a new report issued by the National Research Council says that fuel cells are still at least 15 years away from being commercially feasible. The release says that despite “impressive progress toward commercialization,” some $200 billion is needed over the next decade and half — $55 billion from the government and $145 billion from the private sector. The report says that in the short term, fuel efficiency and biofuel research would be a more cost-effective way to reduce...

Nissan accelerator pedal pushes back to save fuel For drivers who like to step on the gas but don't want a higher fuel bill, Nissan Motor on Monday unveiled an accelerator pedal that pushes back to help motorists get more mileage. Nissan's "Eco Pedal" system is the latest salvo in the fight between automakers to woo customers with technology that reduces fuel consumption. The pedal automatically pushes back on the foot when the system detects too much pressure on the accelerator, informing the driver that he or she is using more fuel than required, Nissan said. An eco-driving indicator fitted...

If, say five years from now, you're filling your car's tank with low-cost fuel made from grass, algae or another non-food plant, you might have a University of Northern Colorado professor to thank. Chhandak Basu, an assistant professor of biological sciences, is researching whether a gene from a tropical "diesel tree" can be cloned into other plants for mass production of biofuel. Basu has received $100,000 for the two-year collaborative project with researchers at the University of Tennessee. Basu got a $49,643 grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade, along with matching funds from UNC. "I...

Barack Obama is proposing tapping the nation's strategic oil reserves to help drive down gasoline prices, his campaign said Monday. Obama supports releasing light oil from the emergency oil stockpile now and replacing it later with heavier crude more suited to the country's long-term needs, according to a campaign fact sheet. Light crude oil is easier to refine into gasoline than heavier oil. Also on Monday, the Obama campaign unveiled a television ad that criticizes Republican John McCain's energy policies. "After one president in the pocket of big oil we can't afford another," says the ad, referring to President Bush's...

Dinosaurs Diversified Over Time, Not SuddenlyMany Species, Many, Many Years July 23, 2008 The belief that dinosaurs underwent explosive species diversification just before they were wiped out is an illusion, for the beasts' main evolutionary shifts took place millions of years before, a study says. The strange demise of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous era some 65 million years ago has given rise to a popular view that almost has the tinge of Greek tragedy. Just as the rulers of the Earth had reached their evolutionary zenith, a catastrophic event -- possibly a space rock that slammed...

HERE IT IS

Who wouldn’t like the idea of a fuel cell car running on clean, pure hydrogen, the universe’s most plentiful element? Its byproduct is sparkling, drinkable water, with none of that pesky pollution spewing out the tailpipe. And then if there's any energy left over when you're done driving, why, you could use that car's fuel cell to power your house! We can get rid of gasoline! And fuel cells, hey, they use those in spacecraft, don't they? This is some modern stuff, and at first glance, hydrogen appears to be a viable solution to all our energy problems. Well,...

Charging for checked luggage and legroom isn’t enough for some carriers — starting today, coach passengers flying aboard US Airways Inc. must pay for a drink of water. This morning, US Airways began charging fliers $2 for bottled water and sodas and $1 for teas and coffees. First class members, trans-Atlantic passengers and a select group of others are exempt from the extra fees. “This is another clever way to masquerade airfare increases without increasing airfares,” says Randy Petersen, editor of Inside Flyer Magazine. “Everything has been passed along to the consumer.” (snip) Continental Airlines Inc. — one of the...

It has long been the Holy Grail of environmental scientists, but researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are confident they have found an inexpensive way of producing hydrogen from water, paving the way for the widespread adoption of zero carbon fuel cells capable of powering buildings and cars. The technique is similar to the way photosynthesis works in plants and is based on a new catalyst that can split water at room temperature to create hydrogen and oxygen. The catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode that is placed into water. When electricity runs through the...

The hydrogen gas systems being used by several mid-valley drivers cannot deliver any kind of efficiency, says Bob Paasch, the Boeing professor of mechanical design at Oregon State University. “The process is a scam,” he said. “It’s wishful thinking. If it were true, every power company and auto company in the world would be using it.” Paasch said the systems — which use water and baking soda to create hydrogen via an electrical charge from the battery and alternator — violate the second law of thermodynamics and can’t work. “People who buy into this are wasting their money,” he said....

Splitting a few litres of water would be enough to power a home for a day, scientists claim. Scientists have found an inexpensive way to produce hydrogen from water, a discovery that could lead to a plentiful source of environmentally friendly fuel to power homes and cars. The technique, which mimics the way photosynthesis works in plants, also provides a highly efficient way to store energy, potentially paving the way to making solar power more economically viable. Hydrogen is a clean, energy-rich fuel that many experts believe could become important as nations attempt to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The...

You've already tried saving a few dollars at the fuel pump by driving slower, consolidating trips and keeping your tires properly inflated. But the high cost of fuel is still killing your budget. Companies sensing an opportunity are offering some clever innovations to wring more mileage out of your car. Here are three plausible solutions that look beyond gasoline. They center on three gases: hydrogen, nitrogen and methane — in ways you may not expect. Hydrogen If you can't afford one of the new gas-electric hybrid cars, Bruce White, co-founder of H2 Hydrogen Technologies in East Hartford, says his fledgling...

A Northamptonshire man destroyed his garage and badly injured himself at the weekend while attempting to make biodiesel from used cooking oil. A devastating explosion levelled the makeshift reprocessing plant on Saturday afternoon, when sparks from an electric drill being used to mix ingredients ignited explosive vapours. Firemen hastened to deal with the smoking wreckage, in Middleton Cheney, and the unnamed thrifty motorist was airlifted to hospital with 20 per cent burns. "Firefighters would like to urge members of the public to take extreme caution if undertaking such chemical mixtures in their own homes," said a statement from the Oxfordshire...

From Mexico to India to China, governments fearful of inflation and street protests are heavily subsidizing energy prices, particularly for diesel fuel. But the subsidies — estimated at $40 billion this year in China alone — are also removing much of the incentive to conserve fuel. The oil company BP, known for thorough statistical analysis of energy markets, estimates that countries with subsidies accounted for 96 percent of the world’s increase in oil use last year — growth that has helped drive prices to record levels. In most countries that do not subsidize fuel, high prices have caused oil demand...

Just as it is true that “Man shall not live by bread alone,” it is equally true humanity cannot live upon words alone. Yet dangerous words that represent nothing more than figments of the liberal imagination (think of “free love”) are the stock-in-trade of supposed liberal intellects. That fact was surprisingly reinforced in a recent column by Thomas L. Friedman of the NY Times, a man who usually knows better than to associate himself with stupidity but wrote admiringly of Al Gore as follows: “Mr. Gore proposed dramatically improving our national electricity grid and energy efficiency, while investing massively in...

The world of biofuels has been turned on its ears in the past twelve months, as environmentalists finally realized policies they supported to reduce use of petroleum had literally created a subsidized global market for biofuel - leading to massive new rounds of rainforest destruction to grow, for example, oil palms. Suddenly biofuels is not being described as the answer to everything. Yet through all this there has always been the promise of sustainable biofuel - a crop that stablizes soil, serves as a windbreak, and grows in arid land where nothing else will survive. A fuel crop that not...

The full-page ad inside Wednesday's edition of USA Today is as scary as it is unprecedented. The union representing more than five-thousand US Airways pilots accuses the airlines of threatening "termination of their careers" if pilots fail to "reduce fuel levels" "to save money." "Fuel is very critical to any mission. When you start varying the amount of fuel and getting it below a captain's comfort zone, that's why we have an issue here," said Capt. James Ray of the US Airline Pilots Association.

A British company is claiming the hydrogen age could be a little closer after it unveiled a major innovation. The new hydrogen refuelling cell in action It has created a home filling station which would solve one of the biggest problems surrounding hydrogen powered cars It claims to have dramatically cut the cost of creating hydrogen and has developed a device the size of a fridge freezer which can fit in your garage and create its own supply of hydrogen. At the moment there are only three hydrogen filling stations in Britain and the cost of fully equiping the country...

Greg Raleigh of Elk Mound gets nine miles more per gallon of gas from his 2002 Ford Escort after installing parts that help the engine run on hydrogen. ELK MOUND - Greg Raleigh is spending less time at the gas pump and saving money thanks to technology and a quart-size canning jar. Raleigh has installed what is called hydrogen injection technology - or hydrogen on demand - in his 2002 Ford Escort, improving his gas mileage by 29 percent. The car was getting 31 miles per gallon and now gets 40, Raleigh said. "I'm saving about $20 a week...

An ancient organism from the pit of a collapsed volcano may hold the key to tomorrow's hydrogen economy. Scientists from across the world have formed a team to unlock the process refined by a billions-year old archaea. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute will expedite the research by sequencing the hydrogen-producing organism for comparative genomics. When members of the Russian Academy of Sciences isolated a rare archaeal microorganism that breaks down cellulose and produces hydrogen, Biswarup Mukhopadhyay, an assistant professor with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, saw an opportunity to open a door for development of...

There is some excitement in the nuclear focused blog world about “The World’s First Commercial High Temperature Nuclear Reactor” based partly on a recent article in Power Engineering by Jana Miller titled “Powering Up A Growing Nation”. This project in Shandong Province will be a unique plant whose reactor heat source is two containers full of spherical fuel elements, each one of which is about the size of a billiard ball. I am a bit reluctant to call this plant a “first”, but I can get just as excited about the third, 10th or 100th plant in a progressive...

It's one thing for a car to run on air, but do the latest claims of hydrogen-turned-oxygen-turned-electricity propulsion hold water—or feed in to the hysteria of the gas crunch? In his biweekly online column, PM's senior automotive editor focuses his chemistry prowess on the case of miracle water fuel, then builds an HHO car himself. From a startup snagging headlines to DIYers posting plans, water-powered cars have been all over the Web recently—not to mention stuffing my email inbox. Yes, you can run your car on water. All it takes is to build a “water-burning hybrid” is the installation of...