Fix a Leak Week & Tesla Motors

The government wants you to fix that leak.

This is The Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.
Today begins fix a leak week. It's probably not in your calendar. It's a new effort from the US EPA to encourage people to take a closer look at their plumbing. Tamara Keith reports.

AMB: Dripping sound

It turns out that drip drip drip of a leaky faucet can really add up.

AMB: toilet running

A running toilet can waste up to 200 gallons a day.

Michael Shapiro heads the water division at the EPA.

ACT: A typical home will leak up to 11-thousand gallons a year. About the amount of water that will fit into a home swimming pool for example.

At Strosneiders Hardware in Bethesda, Maryland, plumbing manager Jim Loviss says most people can handle doing the repairs themselves.

ACT: Sometimes it's a washer, sometimes it's a hose or a supply tube. Most times it's simple. It's being able to shut the water off and find out where the problem is and solve it.

But, he's not expecting a rush on washers and toilet flappers...just because the EPA has declared it fix a leak week. For the Environment Report, I'm Tamara Keith.

(((STING)))

This is The Environment Report…

If you want a clean electric vehicle to cruise the highway today, you really only have one option: a small, Silicon Valley company named Tesla.

Tesla has plans to be a big player in the auto industry, but so far the company has only built a few hundred cars.

Michigan Radio’s Dustin Dwyer looks at whether Tesla can make it in one of the toughest industries around.




If you’re trying to get attention for a new vehicle, a big auto show is one of the best places to get it.

And even this year, as GM and Chrysler hobbled into the Detroit auto show on federal life support, there was still a lot of hype. Here’s GM’s introduction for the Chevy Volt.

IMPEMBA :05
“Ladies and gentlemen, the future of automotive transportation has entered the building.”

That’s how the big players make their announcements.

Tesla is not a big player.

C-E-O Elon Musk made his big announcement in a hotel conference room in front of a bunch of geeky auto analysts.

MUSK :19
“A big announcement that I’ve just gotten this morning permission this morning to make is, um …” (takes drink)

Here he takes a drink of his water.

“…that Daimler has given us permission to acknowledge that they are the automotive partner that we’re working with.”





(smart ass comment)

That means Tesla is going to help make an electric version of Daimler’s tiny Smart car.

Musk is not much of a salesman. But maybe he doesn’t have to be. While all the big carmakers are seeing huge sales drops, Musk says Tesla sales keep going up.

But Tesla, at most, makes 30 vehicles a week, not much in an industry where most carmakers measure their sales in the millions.

But next week, Tesla will officially unveil its new model, a four door sedan aimed right at the mass market. Even if that car succeeds, though, Tesla is still a tiny company.

Michael Robinet is an auto industry analyst with the firm C-S-M Worldwide. He says Tesla’s small size is a problem.

:09
ROBINET
“Economies of scale is one of the main drivers of this industry to get cost out of the vehicle and be competitive. And that’s where the major vehicle manufacturers are going to have a leg up in the future.”

Tesla’s new four door is expected to go on sale in 2011.

In the meantime, Tesla is acting like a big player in at least one sense. The company’s hit up the federal government for 350 million dollars in loans.

For the ER,

350-million. Ha! GM burns through that in ten days. That’s The Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.