Pat Murphy
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La Revolucion Energetica: Cuba’s Energy Revolution
Havana, Cuba [Renewable Energy World Magazine] A new revolution is sweeping the island of Cuba, which is making massive progress on energy efficiency and renewable generation. Indeed, such is the success of the two-year old program on this small island of 11 million people, that many other countries could learn from its efforts to be energy independent and curb climate change. Laurie Guevara-Stone reports.
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Will US Plug-In Cars “Peak” in 2015?
2014 marks the fourth full year of plug-in cars sales. “Plug-ins” include battery electric cars (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs). The period of plug-in-hybrid cars could be said to have begun when the Chevrolet Volt concept car debuted at the January 2007 North American Auto Show. The first production unit was shipped in December 2010, the same month the BEV Leaf was shipped.
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Requiem for Plug-In Cars
Electrification of modern transportation is not totally new to the US – from 1997 through 2003, almost 6,000 electric cars were produced, mostly for the state of California, under the zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate established in 1990 by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). In 2003, CARB drastically scaled back the ZEV mandate and the auto companies withdrew their ZEV offerings. In the same year the Tesla Motor Company was formed with the goal of …
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The Second Death of the Electric Car
Electrification of transportation has been a national goal in recent years. Electric cars were common in the early days of the automobile; however, the internal combustion engine eventually became the dominant power train. Streetcars and trolleys were the mainstay of early intra-city travel but over time were replaced by buses. “Light rail” continues to be a goal of some cities but implementation has lagged. High-speed electric trains are more common in Europe, Japan, and now …
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The Priuseqv Proposal
U.S. automakers have tried but been unsuccessful over the last 30 years in developing new powertrain technologies that significantly improve miles per gallon (MPG) or reduce CO2 emissions. These unsuccessful technologies include fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), diesel hybrid technology (Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles), Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). The only new technology that has improved MPG (and reduced CO2 emissions) significantly has been the Hybrid Electric Vehicle …
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Reviewing EPA’s FuelEconomy.Gov Plug-In Emissions
Several of the white papers on this website have analyzed electric car fuel economy information on car window stickers. These papers have noted that important information is missing from the window sticker. For some time I have been following the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fueleconomy.gov website waiting for promised new functionality to make comparing vehicle MPG and CO2 emissions easier. I was very interested in this new information since the past data provided by the …
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The Smart Jitney: Rapid Realistic Transport
The world is facing twin threats from global climate change, caused largely by CO2 released from burning fossil fuels, and declining fossil fuel resources. Automobiles play a major role in both of these potential catastrophes. The damage is already so significant that severe restrictions may have to be placed on consumption of the remaining fossil fuels, making the development of alternative transport systems vital.
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The EPA’s Flawed 2013 Window Sticker
Automobile “window stickers” provide relevant information about new automobiles. They are affixed to every new car in every car showroom in the U.S. The window sticker is specified and designed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with support from the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Transportation (DOT); the logos of all three organizations are on the most recent sticker. The EPA and related agencies set the standards for car fuel-economy testing but do …
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History and Status of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV)
The Prius Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) represented approximately a billion dollar investment by Toyota to develop a compact car rated at 41 MPG. The program began in 1993 with initial Japan shipments in late 1997 and first shipments in the U.S. in late 2000. The MPG rating was about twice the average MPG of an equivalent 2000 car in the U.S. The research and development (R&D) budget for the automobile industry is over $100 billion …
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The Plug-In Scam: GM and EPA Misrepresentation of the PHEV
In a March 2010 article, “Plug-In Vehicles: The First Great Fraud of the New Millennium,” author John Petersen discussed the weaknesses of the plug-in hybrid or pluggable hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). He followed this with a Feb 14, 2011 article, “Why Plug- In Vehicles Are a Luxury No Nation and No Investor Can Afford,” and then an August 25, 2011 article, “It’s Time to Kill the Electric Car, Drive a Stake Through Its Heart and …
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