AutoblogGreen

As the WillieRun guys get ready to go from NYC to LA on one* tank of fuel, Wayne Keith down in Alabama is preparing to drive in a coast-to-coast race from South Carolina to California (and back) using nothing but a wood-burning truck. Keith's Bio-Trucks (there are currently four versions) use a system that gassifies wood in the bed and then feeds the syngas into the engine. According to the Bio-Truck website, Keith's race vehicle is a modified 1991 Dodge Dakota V8 pickup that can get about a mile per pound (a back-up vehicle, a 1987 Dodge Dakota V6, can go a mile and a half on that much carbon-containing wood). Top speeds for the two Bio-Trucks are 80 mph for the V8 and 65 for the V6. There's a reason that Keith uses older trucks: new trucks can't be converted because of their advanced fuel injection systems. Keith's partners in the BioTruck endeavor include Auburn University, Range Fuels and more. Thanks to tipster Joe P.

[Source: Bio-Truck Homepage]

Thanks to diesel's high-mpg factor and some of Europe's small countries, it's not impossible to hit six nations on one tank of fuel. Here in the U.S., though, the distances are a bit longer, and we can't quite make it to as many lands without refueling. Some see the distance as a challenge to be conquered, like Nik Bristow and his driving buddy, who intend to take a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta TDI from NYC to Los Angeles on one* tank of gas. The trip will take place about a month from now and is named after Mr. Biodiesel himself, Willie Nelson.

Willie Run will set off from Manhattan on September 22 with the intent to arrive in LA on the the 24th. The whole "one tank" thing, though, needs to be explained, since there's no Jetta available that's going to drive the whole 3,000 miles without a refil. The guys installed a "second, high-capacity fuel tank" into Willie One to provide the needed fuel. Bristow sent and email to AutoblogGreen to explain the reason why:

Why do it? Well, outside the circles of car junkies and hippie-types, biodiesel is still relatively unknown, at least in America. The average Joe who's feeling the squeeze at the pump thinks that his only option for an environmentally responsible fuel-sipper is a hybrid. But as we car-lovers know, diesels are comparatively much more efficient than their gasoline counterparts, sometimes even more than their hybrid colleagues, and can still deliver great performance. When you add biodiesel to the equation, a diesel-powered vehicle is one of the best options for the environment, the wallet and for our domestic energy security. Willie Run '08 aims to make that a well-known fact.

Get more details at the Willie Run site and stay tuned for updates. Bristow said he hopes that the Willie Run will become an annual event, with a whole fleet of "coast-to-coast cruisers from University Engineering Schools, major auto manufacturers, backyard tinkerers and maybe even TEAM AUTOBLOGGREEN." We'll see.

[Source: Willie Run / Nik Bristow]

We've been following the Ford fuel cell fleet for two years now, and have done our own in-depth test drive of the hydrogen-powered Focus. Ford has been keeping a detailed record of their own experience with these advanced powertrain vehicles and likes what it sees. The company announced today that the Focus Fuel Cell vehicles "performed better than expected" and will be on the road for up to an additional two years thanks to an extension of the program Ford has with the U.S. DOE. Thus far, the advanced fleet has traveled more than 865,000 "real world miles" and these vehicles will go many more before the next-generation hydrogen system is ready around 2010. That system should address weaknesses in the current one, and be able to go farther on a tank of hydrogen, be more reliable and start up when it's below freezing out. Details after the jump.

[Source: Ford]

Photo by david.nikonvscanon. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

Oh, poor Newt Gingrich. Once the shining star of the Republican party, the former House Speaker has now been reduced to spewing utter nonsense on Sean Hannity's TV show (yes, for some readers this will feel like a dog bites man type of story). ThinkProgress catches Gingrich trying to make a political point out of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's very sensible (if boring) statement that keeping automobile tires properly inflated can help save fuel. In response, Newt said the following:

Well, I got a very funny e-mail from a retired military officer in Tampa who pointed out that most tire inflation is done at service stations and you pay for it. And it's actually a higher profit margin than selling gasoline. So Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas.

I think all of our readers can figure why this is nonsense, but ThinkProgress has the details if not. As Josh Marshall says, it "Simply defies comprehension how stupid this is. But you can say anything on Fox." Video after the jump. In related news, dKos has a long and opinionated post looking at politicians and Big Oil.

[Source: ThinkProgress]

Last year, the fifth annual AltWheels festival featured a lot of cool green car goodness - along with things like Darth Vader discussing HUMMER and a vegoil MINI. This year, the show returns to the Boston area for three days one day of greener transportation discussion and presentations, including a one-day fleet-centered show on September 29 that will feature what organizers are calling the "Largest Display of Alternative Fleet Vehicles on East Coast." It certainly looks like a tempting way to spend the day, and should give the people responsible for spending the real big bucks on fuel a chance to figure out how best to reduce costs.

For the general public, the two-day show takes place on September 26 and 27 at the Boston City Hall Plaza (the Fleet Day is in Framingham, MA) and is part educational event and part fun fair. I have no inside information on whether or not the evil Anakin will make an appearance, but the organizers are promising "jugglers, unicyclists, clowns, face painting, and much more fun for families." More details on Fleet Day are in the press release pasted after the jump and the general AltWheels site is here. I'm sure attendees will be posting their own reports online, but if any AutoblogGreen readers are headed to the show and want to share their photos or thoughts, drop us a line.

UPDATE: I misread the AltWheels website. There is in fact no two-day festival this year. One of the organizers wrote in to ABG with the following note: Thank you for posting about AltWheels Fleet Day but there will not be any two-day festival this year, just the Fleet Day. The economy had a dramatic effect on funders and potential funders. The festival was unable to secure enough sponsorship/support to guarantee the vibrant festival we've all come to know and love. Apologies.

[Source: AltWheels]

Photo by iboy_daniel. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

All of those reduced-fuel-use school buses (examples here and here) can't help some school systems continue on as normal in the current economy. Thanks to high fuel prices - among other reasons - the four-day "work" week that is gaining currency at businesses nationwide is spreading to at least 15 more school districts across the U.S., according to a new article by the AP. Last year, the AP says, around 100 districts dropped a day. For one school system highlighted in the article, cutting a day out of the school week (while making each class the rest of the week ten minutes longer) will save $65,000 in fuel costs (I'm guessing per year, but the AP doesn't say. With only 700 students, I can't imagine they're paying that much per week or month).

The article mentions other cost-saving methods that schools and parents are turning to this year. On transportation issues, the article mentions that field trips are being slashed while weekend athletic trips might be done through private car pools instead of school buses at some schools. At a school in Alabama, the daily buses to and from school will no longer stop at each house but at neighborhood stops instead (this makes a lot of sense) and at a school in California, high school students won't get to use the bus at all (not so sure about this one, from an environmental viewpoint).

[Source: AP]

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The Detroit Free Press' Justin Hyde has a new article out about just how reliant the Big Three are on other countries for all of their new-fangled high-tech parts, especially batteries for hybrid vehicles. We know that the U.S. government is funding hydrogen fuel cell and biofuel research to the hilt, but the dollars for PHEVs and their batteries simply don't match up. Hyde writes about the advantage that Asian countries have in making rechargeable batteries thanks to strong government support there for decades.

The thing is, I'm not sure how this reliance on other countreis for batteries will really be any different from many other aspects of the auto industry. I mean, haven't the past two or three (or more?) decades really been about moving production and sourcing to each and every corner of the world? Or take computer chips - of which how many are in each new car? How many of these are produced in the U.S.? It's the reality of the business/corporate world today, and hybrid vehicles certainly are no exception. Not sure what the surprise is here.

[Source: Seattle Times]

It's been a tough year or so for Imperium Renewable. Imperium, the force behind one of America's largest biodiesel plants, is a Seattle-area company that was hit with a lawsuit from a former employee this spring. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer details the many other problems facing Imperium: a cancelled IPO, layoffs executives leaving. The latest dark spot comes from the sunny tropics (sort of), because cruise giant Royal Caribbean Cruises has canceled a ginormous biodiesel contract with Imperium. The early end of the 18-million-gallon-a-year contract (which was supposed to run through 2011) is "raising questions about the future of the $78 million facility," the Seattle PI writes, refering to the big 100mgpy plant in Grays Harbor County, Washington. The two companies aren't talking about why the contract was canceled, but I'm guessing that the sluggish economy is dampening people's enthusiasm for expensive cruises these days, and Royal Caribbean just plain needs less fuel. Could have something to do with it, right?

[Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

Let's see. You're a gas station owner who wants to get out of the petrol business and into something a little more eco-friendly. Electric cars, say. How do you mark the transition? For Milton Grin, owner of a Valero in Kansas City, Missouri, the answer was to attract attention to his new venture by selling his current product at discount prices - like $1.99 for a gallon of gas (diesel prices remained high). To take advantage of the media and customer attention his sale generated, Grin had three EVs on display at the pumps. To me, this is a pretty good way to highlight the difference between fueling at a pump and charging from a plug. You need gas? You gotta drive somewhere and wait in line. You need electricity, just plug it in. The gimmick worked, and the response was so huge that Grin had to stop the sale in the early evening because of the traffic swarm.

See news stories of the cheap gas sale here, here and here. Tipster Andrew (whose last name is also Grin, according to his Flickr profile) has also posted a collection of photos of the event over on Flickr. Thanks, Andrew.

[Source: KCTV5]

There has been a lot of noise in Kentucky recently as state elected officials work to bring a large electric car factory to the area. A month ago, Democrats and Republicans were fighting over just who could hold the earlier press conference with representatives from Zap. Then, two weeks ago, the governor issued an executive order to allow low-speed three wheelers like Zap's Xebra on the roads. On Friday, officials from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority gave the green light to offer a $48m tax credit package to Integrity Manufacturing of Bullitt County for an $84m plant that could be used by Zap to build electric vehicles. A final deal is expected this week, says the Courier-Journal, and Zap could employ anywhere between 500 and 2,500 workers in Kentucky (or maybe Indiana, if the Kentucky deal falls through) some time after the plant is up and running in late 2009.

[Source: Courier-Journal]