San Francisco expects to process 10,000 gallons of the grease every day (Photo by Rainer Zenz, source: Wikimedia Commons)
One city’s new program is taking the mucky sink-clogging grease from restaurants and converting it into fuel for its fleet of vehicles. As David Gorn reports, it’s the first effort of its kind in the nation:
Transcript
One city’s new program is taking the mucky sink-clogging grease from restaurants and converting it into fuel for its fleet of vehicles. As David Gorn reports, it’s the first effort of its kind in the nation:
It’s 6 in the morning, and a San Francisco sewage treatment plant is already in full gear.
(sound of a truck motor)
Workers are unloading a tankful of used cooking oil from local restaurants.
(sound of a man shouting)
But soon they’ll also be picking up something a little nastier from restaurants.
“Brown grease is culled out, pumped out by grease haulers and taken out of the city, often to landfills.”
That’s Karri Ving, biofuels coordinator for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She says, instead of carting that grease off to a garbage dump, it will now be converted into biofuel.
“That material, that food material, is what we’re going to condense into a putty that gets converted into road-worthy biodiesel.”
Ving says San Francisco expects to process about 10,000 gallons of the
stuff every day.
President Obama has outlined his plans
for the struggling auto industry. They
include restructuring GM and Chrysler
as well as help for auto workers and
communities hurt by slumping car and truck sales. Lester Graham reports lost in the details was the President’s bigger plan:
Transcript
President Obama has outlined his plans
for the struggling auto industry. They
include restructuring GM and Chrysler
as well as help for auto workers and
communities hurt by slumping car and truck sales. Lester Graham reports lost in the details was the President’s bigger plan:
In one sentence President Obama summed up his vision for the U.S. auto industry.
“I am absolutely committed to working with Congress and the auto companies to meet one goal: the United States of America will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars.”
Some analysts say the market should decide whether consumers want fuel-efficient, clean cars. They point to headlines noting hybrid car sales fell off a cliff since gasoline prices went down.
But J.D. Power and Associates’ Michael Omotoso says yeah, hybrid sales are down – but not as much as everything else.
“Hybrid sales are actually doing well compared to overall sales.”
Hybrid sales in February were down 29% from last year, but overall light vehicle sales fell 40%.
Omotoso says hybrids are still selling because people expect gas prices will go up as the economy recovers.
Right now, cars get an average 27 and a half miles per gallon. By
2011, they'll have to get 30.2 (Photo by Ben VonWaggoner)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new vehicle fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. As Tracy Samilton reports, it’s the first change since 1985:
Transcript
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new vehicle fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. As Tracy Samilton reports, it’s the first change since 1985:
Right now, cars get an average 27 and a half miles per gallon. By
2011, they’ll have to get 30.2. Light trucks, including SUVs, will
have to get 24.1 miles per gallon, up a mile per gallon.
Eli Hopson
is with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He says the change is not
dramatic but it’s still an important milestone.
“The car standards haven’t
changed. They’ve been at 27.5 for over twenty years. It is a big deal. It’s
been a long time in coming.”
Carmakers are prepared for the new standard and say they’ll meet it.
Future standards will be tougher.
Auto companies usually complain
when mileage standards are raised. But times have changed, especially
for Chrysler and GM. They might not be as vocal since accepting
billions in federal loans.
Tesla's Roadster Sport - a 2-seat sports car priced at $100,000 (Photo courtesy of Tesla Motors)
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. Dustin Dwyer looks at whether Tesla can make it in one of the toughest industries around:
Transcript
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. 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, and all carmakers scaled back, there was still a lot of hype.
Here’s GM’s introduction for the Chevy Volt.
“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.
CEO Elon Musk made his big announcement in a hotel conference room in front of a bunch of geeky auto analysts.
“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.”
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.
“And, well, actually we can’t produce them fast enough and we’re sold out through November of this year.”
Now, Tesla – at most – makes 30 vehicles a week. And its only car, a sporty roadster, sells for more than $100,000.
A company like GM sells thousands of cars a week, and people who aren’t movie stars can actually afford some of them.
But Musk says he wants Tesla to be more than just a small time player.
So now the company is working on a four-door sedan that will sell for about $50,000 – still pricey for most of us, but half the price of its two-seat roadster.
Here’s the thing though, right now, Tesla has the electric vehicle market all to itself. But all the big companies are working on their own electric cars.
So when Tesla comes out with its four-door sedan, the competition will be much tougher.
Michael Robinet is an auto industry analyst with the firm CSM Worldwide. He says Tesla’s small size is a problem.
“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.”
Some who follow the auto industry think Tesla’s future could be as more of a partner to existing companies, like what Tesla is doing with Daimler.
But Elon Musk insists Tesla will continue to make its own cars. And it can succeed.
“You go through sort of stages of denial, I guess. You know, when we first said we’d make this car, people said you can’t make this car. It’s not going to work, the technology’s not going to work, and even if the technology works, nobody’s gonna buy the damn thing. And we’ve shown, hey, we can make the technology work and people really want to buy it. So, okay, then they go to the next stage, ‘Oh, well, sure, okay, people will buy that car, but they won’t buy a sedan.’”
Tesla plans to unveil the new sedan later this month (March 26). The car is expected to go on sale in 2011.
In the meantime, Tesla has not been completely immune to all the problems facing the auto industry. Tesla had trouble raising money last year to finance the new sedan. So it turned to the federal government for a 350 million dollar loan.
At least in that one sense, Tesla is already acting like a major player.
Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (N.E.V.'s) can go up to 25 mph. The City of Chicago would like to see more people using them for short-distance errands. (Photo by Mike Rhee)
Hybrid cars are all the rage nowadays.
But Mike Rhee reports another car could take the concept of green-friendly vehicles a step farther:
Transcript
Hybrid cars are all the rage nowadays.
But Mike Rhee reports another car could take the concept of green-friendly vehicles a step farther:
These new types of cars are called neighborhood electric vehicles, or N-E-V’s for short.
Now, to me, they look like souped-up golf carts.
But don’t say that to Matt Stewart.
“It gives them a bad name.”
Stewart is the senior automotive equipment analyst, kind of like the car expert, for the City of Chicago.
It owns four of these small electric vehicles.
And Stewart doesn’t like comparing them to golf carts because he says N-E-V’s are much more sophisticated.
“They can go faster than golf carts, I think golf carts are allowed to go up to just under 20 mph, these go between 20-25 is the top speed. They have safety glass windshields, they have mirrors, they have turn signals, brake lights, headlights, and then they have automotive certified safety belts.”
OK, so N-E-V’s are not golf carts–They’re road ready.
And fully electric.
The vehicles are charged with just a regular wall plug and can go up to 40 miles on a single charge.
And this year, Chicago’s approved these vehicles to drive around nearly everywhere in the city.
“Hi, Garrick.”
“How you doin’?”
Garrick Mueller is a truck driver for the city of Chicago.
We’re standing in this huge warehouse that’s filled with fire engines, garbage trucks, and of course, some N-E-V’s.
Mueller says he uses this little vehicle all the time to move around the warehouse.
We buckle in.
“We’re all set, you ready?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright.”
“This is wild.”
“Isn’t it? It’s pretty neat.”
“OK, so we’re about to go on a regular street.”
“Yeah, Elston Avenue, we’re going to make a right. People look at you, they’re like, what is that? See right there– the cops looking at us? They’re like, ‘What is that.’ It’s like when you see a new car on the street you’re like, ‘Wow, look at that.'”
“Now, the ordinance they passed would allow everyday people like you and me have one of these at home. What do you think about being able to drive this around your neighborhood?”
“You know, I like it. I would definitely drive one of these. I mean, the doors come off in the summer, if you had kids and stuff, you could go to the ice cream parlor, have them seat-belted in and go right to the ice cream, you know, it’s nice.”
“That’s actually the goal.”
That’s Eileen Joyce.
She’s assistant commissioner of Chicago’s vehicle fleet.
Right now, Joyce says the city’s testing out the N-E-V’s for its lighter travel needs.
Say a worker needs to drop off a box of pamphlets at a concert.Or a few employees need to drive downtown for a meeting.
Granted, those kinds of trips are the minority compared to most of the city’s work with large vehicles like garbage trucks and snow plows.
But Joyce says the city wants to show residents how useful these vehicles can be, and, if they catch on, she says it could make a big impact on reducing pollution here.
She imagines N-E-V’s parked in driveways and garages everywhere.
“Plug it in overnight, go and run errands, go to the grocery store, the library, Blockbuster, return something, and come back and plug it in without using any fuel or emitting any emissions into the air.”
Joyce says 39 states permit these smaller vehicles to be used in some form or other.
Some businesses have already started using N-E-V’s for things like food and pizza delivery.
So, you may not have seen one yet, but it probably won’t be long before you do.
A corn ethanol refinery- The ethanol industry is asking the EPA to raise the legal limit of ethanol that can be added to regular gasoline from 10 to 15%. (Photo by Grant Hellman, Courtesy of US Department of Agriculture)
In the 1970s, the government limited the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline at 10 percent. Now, a trade group called Growth Energy has asked the U-S EPA to raise the limit to 15 percent:
Transcript
In the 1970s, the government limited the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline at 10 percent.
Now, a trade group called Growth Energy has asked the U-S EPA to raise the limit to 15 percent.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has already said that 12 or 13 percent ethanol is possible soon.
But, an environmental groups says, “slow down.”
Jeremy Martin is with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He says, first, the government should make sure that a higher-ethanol blend doesn’t damage pollution controls on vehicle engines.
“We don’t want to quickly make a change and then find out that we’ve caused a lot of damage to lots of vehicles on the road or caused a lot of air quality impacts.”
Supporters of the increased ethanol blend say it would help US corn farmers and reduce the demand for foreign oil. But opponents say ethanol made from corn does more harm to the environment than good.
Both studies agree that we need more efficient cars (Photo by Karen Kelly)
Recently two reports on the future of automobiles came out. They looked at cars and trucks from very different perspectives, but came to some similar conclusions. Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Recently two reports on the future of automobiles came out. They looked at cars and trucks from very different perspectives, but came to some similar conclusions. Lester Graham reports:
The first report was published in the journal, Environmental Science and Technology. It looked at what it would take to get U.S. automobiles to reduce the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, enough to lower it to 1990 levels.
Why cars? Because cars and trucks produce a third of U.S. CO2 emissions.
Greg Keoleian is one of the authors at the University of Michigan. He says there are three things that need work.
We need to drive less, burn cleaner fuels, and, within about 40 years, increase the average fuel mileage way beyond the 20-miles per gallon we’re getting now.
“That would need to increase to 136 miles per gallon to meet the carbon targets. Alternatively, if we just focused on fuels, basically we’d need about 80% cellulosic ethanol by 2050. And the third scenario is a reduction in driving. It would mean we’d have to cut our driving in half by 2050.”
It’s unlikely we can accomplish any one of them, and the study’s authors suggest it’ll probably be a combination of more efficient cars, better fuels, and driving less if we’re to reduce greenhouse gases enough to make a difference.
The second report entitled ‘Envisioning an Uncertain Future’ comes from the Boston Consulting Group. It looks at the future of the automobile from a business perspective.
One of the authors, Xavier Mosquet, says the study assumes rising oil prices will force some changes.
“And that the pressure from the consumer on the governments will be so high that the governments will have to take energy actions to develop green products and green cars.”
But the report notes green cars will cost more – as much as 15,000 dollars more for hybrids or plug-in hybrids compared to standard cars.
“The consumer will look at these cars and say, ‘well, these are more expensive than I can pay.’ And therefore they’re not going to buy them. So, what I think the government has to do if they want to go that way is to look at the cost of putting those technologies on the market and either subsidizing the car’s manufacturers and suppliers or helping the consumer with much more tax incentives. Otherwise it will not happen.”
So, from a business perspective, the Boston Consulting Group report suggests without government help, manufacturers won’t build more efficient cars at a price we can afford. But we’ll need them because of high fuel prices.
The University of Michigan report on cars and climate change agrees the government will have a major role.
Author Greg Keoleian says if we take climate change seriously and are committed to doing something about it, we’ll have to change driving habits, encourage innovative manufacturers and invest government money.
“We are capable of doing this and the cost of climate change to society is tremendous. And each sector needs to play a major role in addressing the needs to reduce.”
The studies look at the future of the automobile from very different perspectives, but both agree we need more efficient cars and that won’t happen without the government pushing a little and helping a lot.
Despite the decline in new car sales, Sales Manager Joe Marken expects more business on the
repair and maintenance side of of the dealership.
(Photo by Julie Grant)
The Don Joseph Toyota Dealer in Kent, Ohio is spending about 12-million dollars to
renovate its repair and maintenance facility.
(Photo by Julie Grant)
Not too many people are buying new cars these days. But that’s not all bad news for auto dealers. Julie Grant reports that more car owners are starting to spend money on repair and maintenance:
Transcript
Not too many people are buying new cars these days. But that’s not all bad news for auto dealers. Julie Grant reports that more car owners are starting to spend money on repair and maintenance:
(sound of construction)
Now there’s a sound you don’t hear every day anymore. Especially at a car dealership. It’s construction.
This Toyota Dealer in Kent, Ohio is in the midst of a 12-million dollar expansion.
Sales manager Joe Marken says they’re renovating the repair and maintenance garage. That’s where he’s starting to see the most growth.
“People are looking at, ‘do I want to encumber myself with a 60 month payment of some sort, or do I want to spend X and know that I can get a year or two more years out of whatever I’m doing?'”
Marken says lots of people don’t know if they’ll have a job in the next year or two.
The National Automobile Dealers Association expects more people to spend money on parts and service nationwide this year.
They say there’s an upside – maintenance improves gas mileage and resale value of the vehicle.
President Obama's recent announcement is a clear sign that tougher fuel efficiency standards will come sooner rather than later (Photo by Ben VonWaggoner)
The Bush Administration stopped California from setting stricter fuel efficiency standards. Now, President Obama says his administration might allow the standards to go forward. Mark Brush reports it’s a sign that big changes are ahead for car makers:
Transcript
The Bush Administration stopped California from setting stricter fuel efficiency standards. Now, President Obama says his administration might allow the standards to go forward. Mark Brush reports it’s a sign that big changes are ahead for car makers:
President Obama’s recent announcement is a clear sign that tougher fuel efficiency standards will come sooner rather than later.
Mark Gillies is the executive editor of Car and Driver Magazine. He says, if stricter standards are passed, automakers will have to make big changes to their entire fleets of cars and trucks.
“It’s like a super tanker. Trying to turn the super tanker around is not easy. Trying to get cars to the point where they’re 25% more fuel efficient in 6 years is not the work of the moment. You’re going to see some car makers manage to do it and some car makers won’t be able to do it.”
Gillies says if these new standards pass, you’ll see automakers scrambling to make more electric and hybrid cars. He says it could also curb development of sportier cars.
That’s because car companies might have to spend their resources developing the greener cars of the future.
NYC has new incentives to try to get more hybrid taxis, like this one, on the road (Source: Momos at Wikimedia Commons)
When big cities think about putting more fuel efficient, less polluting cars on the road, the first color that comes to mind isn’t green — it’s yellow. There are so many cabs on city streets, they seem like a good place to start environmental initiatives:
Transcript
When big cities think about putting more fuel efficient, less-polluting cars on the road, the first color that comes to mind isn’t green— it’s yellow. There are so many cabs on city streets, they seem like a good place to start environmental initiatives. In New York City, the mayor has a plan to replace conventional cabs with gas-electric hybrids. But not all taxi drivers are thrilled about the plan. Samara Freemark talked to some of them:
Ask a New York city cabbie what kind of car he drives, and chances are, this is what you’ll hear.
“Crown Vic.”
“Crown Vic.”
“Crown Vic.”
Cabbies love this car. It’s this big, solid, safe thing. It’s got a lot of leg room. It’s easy to repair.
But it burns a lot of gas. And that means a lot of pollution, especially when you realize that there are 13,000 cabs in New York City. All that pollution contributes to asthma, heart disease, and a mess of other health problems.
And that is why New York mayor Mike Bloomberg has it in for the Crown Victoria.
Bloomberg has a plan. He wants to use market incentives to encourage cab companies to buy hybrid.
“To turn NY City’s yellow cabs green.”
Cute slogan.
But Bloomberg isn’t messing around. Just ask the reporter who challenged the idea at a press conference.
“The taxi owners who oppose your plan say it’s deeply troubling that the city is…”
“I think it is more deeply troubling that they’re trying to kill our kids.”
Tough talk, right? But here’s how Bloomberg’s plan would actually work.
A lot of cabbies don’t own their own cars – they lease them from cab companies.
Bloomberg wants to lower the fee companies can charge drivers to take out Crown Victorias. So company owners would make less money on conventional cars.
And he wants to let cab companies charge drivers more to take out hybrids. Companies that chose those cars would make more money, giving them a reason to go green.
There’s something in it for the drivers, too. Although have to pay more to rent the hybrid cabs, they’d make up that money, and then some – a big chunk, actually – in gas savings. Bloomberg says hybrid cab drivers could save hundreds of dollars a year under his plan.
It sounded like a win-win-win situation: good for cabbies, good for cab companies, and good for the environment.
So I went out to the curb to ask some cabbies what they thought of the mayor’s idea.
“I wanted to ask you about hybrids.”
“Hybrid taxi? Yes.”
Sukhinder Singh hadn’t heard about Bloomberg’s plan, but he liked it.
“That’s not a bad idea. You’re not spending any extra money. 3, 4 dollars or 10 dollars extra, you know that later on when you go home you get it back because if you spend less on gas. It helps also for the pollution too. Lot of cabs around NYC, so all pollution.”
But a lot of cab drivers – especially veteran drivers – are not that enthusiastic. They are worried that hybrids aren’t safe. They are worried that hybrids are too small. They are worried about the time and money it takes to repair a hybrid. And most of all, cab drivers like Lal Singh are worried about giving up their Crown Victorias.
“Of course we wish not to pay more money for the gas. But I prefer to keep this poor Crown Victoria. This car makes us live. This Crown Victoria is a very big time strong car. These hybrids, they are not for taxi. They are very small, very unsafe, very unfit.”
So you get the idea – he doesn’t like hybrids.
And there’s one more problem with Bloomberg’s plan. It looked pretty good when it came out, when gas was 4 dollars a gallon. But prices now are about half that. That means cabbies don’t save that much money when they pick a hybrid. And so they have even less reason to give up their beloved Crown Vics.
San Francisco expects to process 10,000 gallons of the grease every day (Photo by Rainer Zenz, source: Wikimedia Commons)
