Free Republic

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board expressed concern Wednesday about the safety risks that heavy electric vehicles pose if they collide with lighter vehicles. The official, Jennifer Homendy, raised the issue in a speech in Washington to the Transportation Research Board. She noted, by way of example, that an electric GMC Hummer weighs about 9,000 pounds (4,000 kilograms), with a battery pack that alone is 2,900 pounds (1,300 kilograms) — roughly the entire weight of a typical Honda Civic. “I’m concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death for all road users from heavier curb weights...

Tesla Motors has earned more than $295 million in green subsidy emission credits during the past three years for a battery-swapping technology customers weren’t getting, a Watchdog investigation reveals. In fact, the electric car company, owned in part by billionaire Elon Musk, may have earned credits up to nearly half a billion dollars in value from the 11 states that use the Zero Emission Vehicle barter as part of a green auto industry mandate. California created the program and leads the pack, doling out $173 million in credits to the Silicon Valley-based Tesla. Tesla claimed the credits between 2012 and...

One of the side effects of not having a combustible engine is that electric vehicles are quiet. Very quiet. So quiet, in fact, that police in California will soon be using electric motorcycles to improve their stealth. The bikes, produced by Zero Motorcycle, are currently being employed by the Scotts Valley Police Department, reportedly the first California police force to utilize electric bikes.

California farms, vineyards in peril from warming, U.S. energy secretary warns 'We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California,' Steven Chu says. He sees education as a means to combat threat. By Jim Tankersley February 3, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- California's farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday. In his first interview since taking office last month, the Nobel-prize-winning physicist offered some of the...