“A new kind of hybrid uses less gas and more electricity. All-electric cars are already here. What will this mean for the road trip of the future?”

Find out in this Travel & Leisure article by early plug-in advocate David Morris. A very good discussion of recent news on electric drive cars.

CNN has done an interesting poll for its Planet in Peril show:

Most Americans blame emissions from cars and industrial plants as the primary cause of global warming and believe the United States should reduce levels even if other countries don’t, a survey shows.

Fifty-six percent of poll respondents said the phenomenon of global warming has been proven, and can be largely blamed on human endeavors, such as power plants and factories, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll.

In comparison, 21 percent of those surveyed claimed global warming problems are caused either by natural changes or are unproven.

Sixty-six percent of Americans believe the United States should do what it can to reduce global warming, even if other nations ignore it. This compares with 52 percent of respondents who believed that way in 2001.

In that year, 34 percent thought the United States needed to reduce harmful gases only if other nations did. A much smaller proportion, 16 percent, responded that way in 2007.

The survey of 1,212 adults was conducted October 12-14 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Biofuels can’t get any respect these days. Science magazine (subs. req’d) recently published an article whose abstract reads, simply,

The carbon sequestered by restoring forests is greater than the emissions avoided by the use of the liquid biofuels.

The article, “Carbon Mitigation by Biofuels or by Saving and Restoring Forests?” notes:

Two issues need to be addressed before the efficacy of biofuels can be assessed: the net reduction in fossil carbon emissions (avoided emissions) arising from use of agriculturally derived biofuels and the effect of alternative land-use strategies on carbon stores in the biosphere.

What happens when you do this analysis?

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Treehugger reports on a public bet I have made with Greg Blencoe, CEO of Hydrogen Discoveries:

Greg Blencoe wins if hydrogen fuel cell vehicles hit 1% of new sales of the typically-defined car and light truck market in the U.S. during 2015 or any year before. Joseph Romm wins if it is 2016 or any year after.

At stake is $1000, plus a certain amount of pride (if I lose, I must be photographed wearing a t-shirt saying “I was wrong about hydrogen.”)

I am certainly prepared to make that bet with pretty much anyone — though I might have to reconsider in the (very) unlikely event I get too many takers. Reasons why you shouldn’t take the bet are below:

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