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Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out? Since most U.S. electricity generation is not carbon-free, the Congressional Research Service agrees. The "widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles through 2030 may have only a small effect on, and might actually increase, carbon emissions," it observes. "If you are using coal-fired power plants and half the country's electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?"...

Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another..."If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?" asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: "Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy."

The push for conversion to plug-in electric cars will do nothing to stop carbon emissions, a report by the GAO warns, throwing cold water on a push by Democrats to get more plug-ins on the road. In fact, the problem could be made worse as demand goes up at coal-fired electrical plants. Plus, the need for batteries may just have the US changing the dictators to which we’re chained, as IBD reports...

Italian contract carmaker and engineering firm Pininfarina has unveiled an own-badged electric car. For decades, the firm has built some of the most stunning cars known to man, without getting much credit for it beyond petrol-head circles. "This car is real," declares Paolo Pininfarina, grandson of the company's founder, as the covers are whipped off the sleek vehicle at the Paris motor show. Pininfarina's electric car, which has been built in partnership with battery producer Bollore, is set to hit the road by the end of next year and should go on sale in the US, Europe and Japan by...

There's a new technology in cars that could save gas and stop construction of new power plants – and Austin Energy is leading the field in its development. In 2003, Austin Energy deputy general manager Roger Duncan was asked by Mayor Will Wynn to find innovative ways to make Austin greener. At the time, AE was struggling over how to manage West Texas wind power. While it's clean energy, the wind doesn't keep to a schedule. Production often peaks at night, when demand is lowest. According to Duncan, the engineers realized that "the automobile battery is the perfect storage for...

You could tell by the sleek and stylish recycled-cardboard binder that housed the conference's program and materials that last week's Austin Clean Energy Venture Summit was no business-as-usual venture capital conference. Indeed, it showcased two revolutionary concepts: "clean tech," a burgeoning industry addressing a range of energy needs by tapping new, innovative technology to create products and services that compete favorably on price and performance while reducing environmental impacts, as well as "the utility of the future," a concept nurtured by Austin Energy that brings into harmony green building, an increasingly electrified transportation grid (think plug-in hybrid cars), and an...

Anyone up for creating a FreeRepublic-specific search plugin for FireFox? The plugin needn't be anything fancy -- it could basically be a shortcut for the Google "site:freerepublic.com" query, or something similar. There's a Firefox Plugin generator here, but darned if I know how to use it. This plugin might be useful for searching the bodies of past FR threads, not just the titles.

Toyota Motor Corp. boasts that its hot-selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid doesn't have to be plugged in. But a growing number of hybrid buffs interested in further boosting the car's fuel economy are asking, "Why not?" By replacing the Prius' batteries with a more powerful array and recharging it using a standard electric outlet at home, engineers have enabled the hybrid to get more than 100 miles per gallon of gasoline.... But the plug-in Prius is the firm's principal claim to fame. In May, Energy Control Systems entered its Prius in the Tour del Sol fuel economy rally in New York....

I am trying to eventually get everyone who works for my employer, a nonprofit group, to switch over from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. I have been playing around with Firefox and like what I see. Herein lies the problem: we have to use geocoding in Internet Explorer to map street addresses. How can I do that with Mozilla Firefox. When I try to map locations in Firefox, I get a message "JavaScript Application: You must install the NCompass Labs Plug-In to access the GIS software." I have done search engine searches and cannot find this said plugin. Can any...

Eolas Technologies, which has the rights to a browser plug-in patent, has filed a motion to permanently stop Microsoft distributing Internet Explorer browsers that infringe the patent Eolas Technologies on Monday filed a motion to permanently enjoin Microsoft's distribution of its Internet Explorer browser amid a flurry of court filings by both sides in the pivotal patent infringement case. Eolas, the sole licensee and sublicensor of a browser plug-in patent owned by the University of California, asked the US District Court in Chicago for an injunction against distributing copies of IE capable of running plug-in applications in a way the...

So there I was....diggin' into my new laptop....and noticing all the little annoying nuances that have populated my home and download directories...when I came across a couple plugin_trace files. I narrowed these down to Java creations possibly generated by browser errors (primarily netscape). So I google'd "java plugin trace and came across the following discussion which can be found here http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=226851 . The one post that struck me as odd was this one, however: (snip) The above re-assuring comments are incorrect. I too found these files appearing on my hard drive and they are indeed generated by Sun Java, however...

I rebuilt my desktop yesterday (long story, don't ask), and lost a toolbar that I actually LIKE! and can't find it again. Ok, it's a MSIE toolbar plugin; it has a randomize (?) button, then 3 rating buttons (bad, good, and great). You fill out a preference sheet, and it bounces you to sites that you are interested in... and it worked well! Anybody have any idea what it is? I found it from slashdot yesterday AM.. and can't find it again. :-( Thanks