Tag: other alternative fuels

NASCAR moves to alternative fuels

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Is is fitting that at the start of every NASCAR race they wave a green flag? As I have previously posted, NASCAR is finally beginning to make their move to alternative, green fuels. Like other racing leagues, companies and organizations, NASCAR is beginning to make their move to become more environmentally friendly.

Currently, NASCAR is only in discussions with their partners. They recently have held conferences on their environment issues with its partners Sunoco Inc and General Motors.

NASCAR does not impact the environment too much with their races but they do impact it symbolically. If people see that NASCAR is willing to make the move to alternative fuels, perhaps NASCAR will be able to persuade them to move on other fuels.

NASCAR administration says that they have they are receiving many car makers willing to help them out. They have Toyota, GM, Ford and Chrysler all offering their support. NASCAR simply needs to take the time out to research and develop their sport to use alternative fuels.

To NASCAR’s credit, they have already answered calls for better safety by introducing new automobiles dubbed the “Cars of Tomorrow” into many of the races this year. Over the course of the 2008 race season, they will use the cars that have been designed to be safer and much more cost effective.

John Edwards promoting e85

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John Edwards is going to great lengths to outshine other Democratic candidates with an very strong environmental platform. On the 2008 campaign trail, this blue-collar defender has declared himself as a bleeding-heart greenie.

Edwards is the first candidate to call for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and the first to make his campaign carbon neutral, Edwards has had a pied-piper effect on the other Democrat contenders, prompting them to make similar pledges. He has also set himself apart with his call for a freeze on all development of coal power plants until they can be outfitted with carbon sequestration technology. But the former senator from North Carolina runs with the pack in his enthusiasm for corn ethanol, and his green mantle is a fairly new accessory.

E85, Automakers and Bush

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The United States automaker chief executives met with and further pushed President George Bush to back incentives bringing e85 ethanol and biodiesel to more gas stations across the country. The automotive companies examined their output of the newest flex-fuel vehicles.

In five years, half the cars made by General Motors, Chrysler and Ford Motor company, would be capable to run on biodiesel or E85, the automotive executives explained.

The meeting with President Bush in Washington DC was for the second time in about 16 weeks that Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan R. Mulally of Ford and Thomas W. LaSorda of Chrysler urged President Bush to expand access to more and more biofuels. The automaker executives wanted that over the proposed stricter fuel economy as a way to cut America’s oil use.

“If the goal is to reduce oil imports and improve the environment, the opportunity is first of all in ethanol, biodiesel,” Wagoner explained to reporters after the summit. They spent almost no time at all conversing about mileage, he said.

The United States of America has over six million flex-fuel vehicles on the roads, but of the country’s 170,000 gas stations we only have 2,000 E85 or biodiesel pumps, they added.

“We are willing to lead the way,” the automakers’ stated. “We need government and fuel providers to increase infrastructure before we can make a meaningful impact.”

President Bush did not comment publicly to biofuel incentives. America’s ethanol producers, made mainly from corn, receive a tax credits of 51 cents per gallon. They also receive a 54 cent tariff on every gallon of ethanol that is imported. Flex-fuel vehicle automakers get a credit that lets them increase their automobile’s fuel economy.

Putting E85 stations within five miles of American motorists would require at a minimum of 20,000 pumps, Phil Lampert says, the director of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition based in Jefferson City, Missouri.

President Bush is calling for a 20% cut in American’s oil consumption within a decade, 75% of that figure factors using alternative fuels, and the rest of the 25% will be attributed to better vehicle fuel economy.