Next week’s UN meeting in Bonn, Germany, which will see the island nation of Fiji preside, will include work on the creation of a so-called rule book for the Paris Climate Accord. In preface to that, Fiji’s chief negotiator, Luke Daunivalu, says that “the current commitments nationally are woefully inadequate.” While that appraisal is itself not very good, […]
Whatever may otherwise be said about the UK’s current environment minister Michael Gove, he does occasionally make some notable comments. Most recently, Gove was quoted as saying that people can be “remarkably, suicidally careless” with the planet and that it was “impossible” for plastic usage to remain as high as it is now. James Ayre […]
The so-called Doomsday Clock, which was created and is maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as a way of communicating to the public the dangers facing the world, is now at just two minutes to midnight — following an update that moved the clock hands forward 30 seconds. By James Ayre The Doomsday Clock has […]
Anthropogenic climate change is set to make much of the currently inhabited world a much harsher, hotter, and water-scarce place — while at the same time turning other regions into swamps and flood-prone toxic waste dumps. By James Ayre Much of India, Pakistan, Southern Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America […]
A coalition comprised of 13 different environmental groups advocating for “clean” transportation solutions in the US has sent an open letter to the United States Postal Service (USPS) calling for the next-generation delivery vehicles (NGDV) design that’s chosen to be a plug-in electric. By James Ayre As it stands, the USPS fleet currently travels some […]
Solar panels are wonderful things, but they do take up a lot of space, especially for larger, utility-scale systems. In some densely populated countries like China and India, where loss of farmland can lead to hungry people, floating solar farms are being built to take advantage of the surface area of lakes and rivers. Researchers at the […]
Toyota’s official stance on plug-in electric vehicles can often be exasperating — how does the company that launched the Prius (coming up on two decades ago now) dither so much when it comes to the rapidly growing sector? Do company execs truly believe that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles present a better bet? Or do execs simply intend […]
During the months of September and October 2017, Ipsos RDA deployed secret shoppers covering 11 auto brands selling electric vehicles across the 10 largest markets for electric vehicles in the US, with the intent being to determine dealer preparedness for the rapid growth of the sector. By James Ayre Altogether, secret shoppers canvassed 141 different dealerships […]
Total petroleum deliveries in the US during October 2017 hit their highest mark since 2007 (pre financial crisis) — rising 1.1% on October 2016 figures, to an average of 19.9 million barrels a day — going on the most recent figures from API. By James Ayre Year to date (the first 10 months of 2017), […]
We reported a few days ago on the news that US House Republicans introduced a proposal to scrap the federal plug-in electric vehicle tax credit — which currently provides a tax credit of up to $7,500 to plug-in electric vehicle buyers in the US (with the credit varying based on battery pack size). Since then, it’s been reported that […]
There are now more than 50,990 public and private plug-in electric vehicle charging sites located throughout the US — up from 34,151 in 2015 — according to the newly released Electric Vehicle Charging Association’s 2017 State of the Charge report. By James Ayre The new report re-evaluates the state of the plug-in electric vehicle charging network in the US, two […]
Radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster is accumulating in the sands and brackish groundwater beneath beaches up to 60 miles away from the nuclear power plant itself, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on October 2. The study is the first to identify accumulations of […]
A new study has found that trying to revive the coal industry in Appalachia won’t work and may well lead to a slowing of job growth. While the steep decline in coal industry jobs seen in Appalachia over the last few decades (71% since 1985) has often been blamed publicly on environmental regulations, the new research […]
Thanks to generous incentives, a high per-capita income, and decades of EV development and awareness raising, Norway is currently the third largest plug-in electric vehicle market in the world — behind only China and the US. By James Ayre Cleantechnica The most recent figures released by our friends over at EV Volumes show that growth so far this […]
The Governor of California, Jerry Brown, last week signed a number of important new electric vehicles and clean transportation bills into law — AB 544, AB 1082 and 1083, and AB 1452. Collectively, the bills “extend the authority of drivers of eligible energy-efficient vehicles to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, encourage electric vehicles (EV) charging pilot […]