HARRISBURG, Pa. - In February, the state House of Representatives took a step toward trying to deal with a looming spike in electricity bills, approving legislation intended to curb energy use and give ratepayers a choice of pricing plans. The bill, a variation of a strategy Gov. Ed Rendell began advocating last year, is intended to help much of the state avert the price spikes that can happen when rate caps expire and customers are forced to pay the higher price of electricity demanded by wholesale markets.
 

ORLANDO, FL – U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner announced that DOE will invest up to $33.8 million, over four years, (Fiscal Years 2008-2011) for four projects that will focus on developing improved enzyme systems to convert cellulosic material into sugars suitable for production of biofuels.  Building on President Bush’s goal of making cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive by 2012, these projects aim to address key technical hurdles associated with mass production of clean, renewable fuels, such as cellulosic ethanol.  Combined with industry cost share, up to $70 million will be invested in these projects, with a minimum 50 percent cost share from industry.  Assistant Secretary Karsner made today’s announcement while delivering keynote remarks at the Renewable Fuels Association National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, Florida.


 

SWEETWATER, Tex. — The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks’s ranch are twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades that span as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he is paid $500 a month apiece to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76 more on the way. “That’s just money you’re hearing,” he said as they hummed in a brisk breeze recently.
Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines. Texans are even turning tapped-out oil fields into wind farms, and no less an oilman than Boone Pickens is getting into alternative energy.
 

The state of New Jersey owns more than 2,200 cars and light trucks that run on a cleaner-burning fuel mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, called E85. But a state worker in Trenton, N.J., would have to drive nearly 30 miles one-way to get that special fuel in downtown Philadelphia.
New Jersey’s so-called “flex-fuel” vehicles are being run only on dirtier unleaded gasoline because the Garden State is one of seven where there are no state-owned or retail pumps that dispense E85, including Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). Although flex-fuel cars can use conventional gasoline, they emit more carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, than if they used the mostly ethanol mix, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found.
 

Automakers are finally getting serious about hybrids, expanding their gas-electric car offerings, and retooling gas-guzzling pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles for the hybrid marketplace. With prices at the pump rising and environmental concerns mounting, General Motors Corp. rolled out four hybrids last year and will introduce another four this year, including the Cadillac Escalade SUV and the Chevrolet Silverado truck. By year-end, GM will have more hybrid models in dealerships than any other car builder.
Toyota Motor Corp., which jumped to an early lead in the US field when its Prius went on sale in 2000, now has more than three-quarters of the hybrid market. The company plans to debut two more, including in its Lexus line, at the Detroit Auto Show next year. And further out, Toyota is testing a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle that could be introduced by 2015.