San Francisco recently banned those plastic grocery bags that we see hanging from trees and stuck on chain link fences. I hate these things but I use them and I’m always surprised how, even in our two person (and two cat) household, they pile up. We seem to collect a big bag of them every week to take to the store for recycling.
The message inherent in the SF law must have been received because our local Wegmans stores are now selling reusable plastic fabric bags. Wegmans is an innovator and the openings of their new superstores generate massive turnouts so this is a good sign.
Increasingly it seems that California is setting the standard for enviromental law with other states quickly following. The question is, where’s the federal government? The answer is that the EPA went to the Supreme Court to prove that it did not have to enforce its own Clean Air Act! They lost but the fact that this absurd situation even took place is just one more reminder that the Bush people will do anything to protect their corporate energy sponsors.

Joel Makower gives an insider’s perspective on the soon to be announced X Prize program for development of a high mileage car that can be produced in volume and at a price point that is marketable. Like the X Space prize program that has ignited (sorry) the private space business, it is hoped that this will set up a gold rush of commercial innovation in the hidebound car efficiency design business.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Joel’s piece is the pragmatic approach they took to setting guidelines for winning. They are unusually realistic about dealing with the many agendas and opinions that often cripple these kinds of initiatives:

“There were still other challenges: what metric to use (fuel economy, fuel cost per mile, etc.) in designing the goal; which fuels would be allowed; and how to measure the carbon equivalency of different fuels — gasoline, biofuels, electricity, hydrogen, and combinations thereof. None of these is an exact science, and each required a great deal of back-and-forth discussions, not to mention more than a little number-crunching.

“We’ve created and thrown out all sorts of guidelines,” says Goodstein with a sigh.”"

Avoiding ‘consensus by committee’ this early bodes well for this competition.

4/4 Update: The rules have been released for a 60 day comment period and the web site is up.

A new study looked at world populations living within thirty feet of sea level:

“The 10 countries with the most people in the low coastal areas are China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, United States, Thailand, and the Philippines.”

Most are in cities. The danger comes from storm surge, tides and other weather along with the rise.
Click the picture for a larger version.

Researchers at the University of St. Louis have developed a tiny fuel cell that runs on sugary liquids and could repace batteries in mobile devices. They conceptualize that the cell could be reloaded with capsules containing sugar solutions but have demo-ed versions running on soft drinks!
If you could charge your phone or laptop with sugary liquids there would be nowhere in the world you couldn’t have power- although I guess pouring liquid into an electronic device has its downsides…