Skip to main content

The NEI Afternoon Clip File

Here are some of the news clips we're reading at NEI this afternoon.

The energy bill, along with a separate highway-construction bill, offers incentives for buying fuel-efficient hybrid cars - including tax breaks, free parking and access to high-occupancy-vehicle lanes even if there's only one person in the car.
The most recent additions are in two major bills currently awaiting President Bush's signature. A bill designed to boost energy production also replaces a federal tax deduction for buying a hybrid with a more generous tax credit that theoretically could total as much at $3,400. A separate highway-construction bill gives states the right to open high-occupancy-vehicle lanes to hybrids even if there's only one person in the car.
The article goes on to note that several state and local governments already offer "sweeteners" to those who drive hybrids. Car manufacturers are responding to the hybrid's growing popularity. Toyota, for instance, plans to introduce 10 more hybrid vehicles in the next decade.
The soaring popularity of hybrids - which use a combination of electrical and gasoline engines to power the wheels - represents an important shift among auto makers. Amid high fuel prices, sales of profitable gas-guzzling sports-utility vehicles have cooled and manufacturers are starting to respond to consumer demand for more efficient vehicles.

Policy makers are eager to spur demand for hybrids because they get good mileage, reduce emissions and cut dependence on foreign oil.
The Standard, China's business newspaper, provides a more in-depth look at Toyota's hybrid-related goals:
Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said the world's No2 carmaker aims by early in the next decade to sell a million hybrid vehicles a year globally. Of that total, 600,000 would be sold in the United States.

"To us, it's not a passing phase but a vital technology for the 21st century," said Press at the annual Center for Automotive Research conference in Traverse City, Michigan.

Toyota was the first automaker to introduce a hybrid vehicle powered by a combination of petrol and electricity.

... "People are buying hybrids for good reasons beyond fuel economy," Press said. "They realize hybrids are a simple way to make an important difference in curtailing foreign-oil dependence, air pollution, and greenhouse gases."

To meet its sales target, Toyota will have to add hybrid engines across its vehicle fleet, including trucks.

... An average SUV will consumer 20 liters of petrol over a 100-kilometer trip. A hybrid will take just 4-5 liters of petrol.
Understandably, General Motors, is eager to start work on its own version of the hybrid, or even a fuel-cell car. Reuters reports that Honda is open to working with GW, which does not currently manufacture hybrid vehicles. Takeo Fukui, Honda's chief executive, said his company leads the industry in fuel-cell vehicles. Honda has also produced a hybrid.
[Fukui] said Honda could share information with GM, and in return benefit from the US giant's knowledge at the political and regulatory levels - useful when it comes to lobbying activities, for instance.
Come back tomorrow morning for more news from the NEI Clip File.

Technorati tags: , , , , ,

Comments

Rod Adams said…
Actually, GM has made significant progress in hybrid vehicles and even has some technology that Toyota might be interested in sharing.

http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/adv_tech/300_hybrids/hyb_timeline.html

GM's emphasis has been to improve the fuel economy of gas guzzling, but economically important vehicles like pickup trucks and buses. Their plan is actually quite logical; I am not sure why they are not doing a better job marketing their successes to the American press and public.

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin