“Inexpensive as it is, though, the Aura Hybrid is controversial. Toyota’s (TM) hybrid business is booming—the Prius’ sales have doubled in the first five months of 2007, to 76,747 units—and Detroit automakers want a piece of the action. But critics will say the Aura Hybrid is little more than another sign of how far behind Detroit is. That’s because the Aura Green Line is a “mild” hybrid that doesn’t have the fuel efficiency of a “full” hybrid such as the Toyota Prius and Camry.”

Business Week gives a rave review to the Saturn Aura Hybrid noting that it is the cheapest hybrid at around $23,000. Only one problem: The mileage is 28/city, 35/highway. My Honda Accord LX was $18,600 and it gets 24/34. The Toyota Prius, a true hybrid gets 51/60 at around $28,000. This is why it outsells all other hybrids. It’s also why Honda dropped its $30,000 Accord hybrid that got one mile more per gallon than my $18,600 Accord.
It’s the same story with the Ford SUV hybrids and most others- they are not true hybrid technology and there is virtually no benefit to paying extra for them.

To me this is cynical marketing at its worst. They make these vehicles so they can claim a green strategy. At least Honda pulled theirs and they still have the most fuel efficient automotive line. I’m guessing they are going back to the drawing board to compete with Toyota. Meanwhile the US carmakers fight any regulatory improvements to fuel efficiency while losing market share every day. The unions and management have to wake up and truly embrace this technology because it is in our national interest.

A note about emissions. These hybrids, with the exception of the Prius, have marginally lower emissions because they still use full size engines. My Honda, however, is what is known as a Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (PZEV) which seems to be a contradictory statement. This designation came about because of California’s strict vehicle emission standards which the Asian manufacturers apply to all their US vehicles. The US makers, for the most part, sell different cars in California to meet the standards- they’d rather pollute the states with lower standards to save a few bucks. Don’t buy American cars until they start acting responsibly. This goes for union members too- if you don’t take your heads out of the sand there aren’t going to be any union automaker jobs left at American car makers because they will be out of business.

Last week I was at a business meeting on the 24th floor of a building in downtown Rochester (NY). The meeting room had floor to ceiling windows. Rochester doesn’t have a lot of tall buildings so the view was unfettered and we could see miles with Lake Ontario to the north and the Bristol Hills to the south. The vista you see from high above Rochester is one of a green city in the literal sense. It looks more like a forest perforated by the occasional taller building than an urban area because we have a very active city forestry department and many large deciduous trees. It is a beautiful perspective that debunks this area’s reputation as having terrible weather- yes we get snowy winters but the spring, summer and fall (which are lengthening) are the best in the country due to a great balance of rainfall, median temps and a lack of extreme weather events.

The environmental greening of Rochester is another story. In comparison to many cities we are not in bad shape. Air pollution is limited to the occasional high ozone alert (there’s one out today due to the heat). This is a car city but traffic and commutes are minimal- the longest commute across the county should average less than a half hour. Eastman Kodak, once our largest employer, was also the single largest polluter in New York State due primarily to the fact that they were a chemical company. Now, with 60,000 less employees and digital technology, they are in the process of demolishing their old plants. They imploded two last week and have taken down nearly 40 buildings that could not be reused. Long term this means the Genesee river which neatly divides the city will be able to return to a more pristine state.

Given these advantages the city and county needs a comprehensive Green Region Plan. Gas is going to rise precipitously in the not too distant future as the oil wars heat up and destabilize world supplies even more. It is time for us to convert our perfect location and assets into a global example of the greening of a city.

Some aspects of a plan might include:
- A visionary overhaul of mass transit. We are building a state of the art bus terminal designed by Moshe Safdie downtown. The obvious next step is to create a light rail axis through the terminal that follows our major highways all the way out to the malls that conveniently mark our county borders. This would turn downtown back to a center city and eliminate much dependence on cars. Buses would serve as neighborhood connections.
- Move building codes to green standards and begin adding roof gardens to all commercial buildings
- We have an amazing bike/walk trail network, in part due to the Erie Canal that crosses the county. You can literally ride north/south and east/west across the entire county without riding on a road. This network is being greatly expanded with trails along the river from downtown to Lake Ontario and waterfront trails along the lakefront. Three season bicycle commuting is practical now.
- Energy. Wind farms are popping up in the outlying counties but are not practical in the urban areas. What we should be exploring are geothermal plants. These can be built on a small footprint, require no fuel, emit nothing and can run continuously forever (no storage issues). Theoretically one could power the downtown area. Why these plants are not being aggressively pursued is a mystery to me.

To be cont’d…

“Our Claim:
Orbo produces free, clean and constant energy - that is our claim. By free we mean that the energy produced is done so without recourse to external source. By clean we mean that during operation the technology produces no emissions. By constant we mean that with the exception of mechanical failure the technology will continue to operate indefinitely.
The sum of these claims for our Orbo technology is a violation of the principle of conservation of energy, perhaps the most fundamental of scientific principles. The principle of the conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created or destroyed, it can only change form.
Because of the revolutionary nature of our claim, not only to the world of science but to the world in general, Steorn issued a challenge to the scientific community in August 2006 to test our technology and report their findings. The process of validation that has resulted from this challenge is currently underway, with results expected by the end of 2007.”

Steorn today announced a ten day public demonstration of its free energy generation technology (branded as Orbo) that does not require any energy source or fuel. Because these claims smack of a perpetual motion machine the energy and science communities scoffed at the concept last year when it was announced as an accidental discovery. As I covered back then, Steorn issued an open challenge to the scientific and engineering community to debunk their claims, a challenge which was apparently taken up by several hundred people.
Now they claim that they will openly demonstrate the technology in London in a completely transparent test and will release licenses to it under a modified general public license. The test will be available live on the web tonight with four cameras streaming the device in action. The license will be widely available at a nominal fee to encourage widespread adoption.

It is hard to dismiss the scam factor in claims such as this, however if there was the slightest chance that this was legit it would be an earthshaking breakthrough offering free energy worldwide without emissions. Crazy but interesting to watch the story unfold.
Stay tuned.
Update: Due to ‘technical difficulties’ they are not launching the demo until tomorrow. The blogosphere is on the case: Free energy tracker.

This should be the best post-iPhone story this week unless it’s all bullsh*t…

Update #2: Not happening today (7/5/07) possibly because of the ‘heat from the video lighting’…ha!

Final Update: Demo cancelled indefinitely. If these guys used a PR firm they should be fired immediately. If not they should get one ASAP because this comes under the category of PR disaster- as in international laughingstock…

GreenMaven offers a ‘green-focused’ search engine that takes advantage of Google’s Custom Search feature that makes it easy for any blog or site to add their own customized search engine. Theirs is a great implementation of this very cool technology.
In my other life as an SEO/SEM guy, I’m very interested in the potential of targeted search that combines Google results with expert editing by actual humans. For those interested in environmental issues, the GreenMaven people have assembled a very useful resource. If you have a greenish blog or site you might want to join them.

BTW, if you’re interested in making a few bucks with your site, Google will share ad revenues from clicks that take place in your custom search engine’s results.