(Source: TheTruckersReport.com via SCM-Operations.com)
Came across these interesting infographs that offered some great insights into the trucking business..
Image Courtesy: SCM-Operations
Image Courtesy: TheTruckersreport.com
God bless The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.
PORT FOURCHON, LA—In what may be the greatest environmental disaster in the nation’s history, the supertanker TI Oceania docked without incident at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port Monday and successfully unloaded 3.1 million barrels of dangerous crude oil into the United States.
According to witnesses, the catastrophe began shortly after the tanker, which sailed unimpeded across the Gulf of Mexico, stopped safely at the harbor and made contact with oil company workers on the shore. Soon after, vast amounts of the black, toxic petroleum in the ship’s hold were unloaded at an alarming rate into special storage containers on the mainland.
From there, experts confirmed, the oil will likely spread across the entire country’s infrastructure and commit unforetold damage to its lakes, streams, and air.
“We’re looking at a crisis of cataclysmic proportions,” said Charles Hartsell, an environmental scientist at Tufts University. “In a matter of days, this oil may be refined into a lighter substance that, when burned as fuel in vehicles, homes, and businesses, will poison the earth’s atmosphere on a terrifying scale.”
(Source: Free Insurance Quotes.org)
Can the U.S. replace 100 percent of its gas consumption with electricity? By this math, yes, we can:
Image Courtesy: FreeInsurancequotes.org
(Source: AP via Yahoo & DC-ist)
Image Courtesy: www.EdwardBurtynsky.com - Click the image to see more pictures
“Edward Burtynsky: Oil,” opens at the privately funded museum as Congress is struggling with a climate bill that could include a “cap and trade” system to reduce greenhouse gases. Critics say it could drive up energy costs.
“We hoped that there would be something going on around oil,” curator Paul Roth said of the museum’s plans for the exhibit beginning two years ago. “At a certain point, we realized, no, it’s Washington and it’s oil. There will be something going on.”
Burtynsky spent 12 years exploring the subject, following past projects on mines, quarries and farming. The images are divided thematically to show how oil is extracted from the earth and how it drives transportation and development. It ends with a frightening thought — the end of oil. Some of the most striking images depict the abandoned, rusting oil fields of Azerbaijan in 2006, where the earth has been tapped dry.
Burtynsky’s large-scale, sweeping landscape photographs deftly allow us to “see” oil, both in each powerful individual scene, and together in a longer narrative, which is how the Corcoran has set up his exhibit. In the first gallery, oil fields in California and Houston and refineries in New Brunswick set the scene. In mostly aerial shots, oil rigs dot an otherwise barren landscape fading all the way into remarkable horizons, marking the beginning of the “lifecycle.” The refineries are highly organized labyrinths of green and silver pipes that look like fine jewelry.
The second gallery, “Transportation and Motor Culture,” is perhaps the highlight of the exhibit. Here, the work alternates between earnest, plain-spoken statements – the obscene, gigantic landfill of black rubber tires – and his “culture” shots that tap into a bit of dark humor. Images of Talladega Speedway, a Volkswagon parking lot, the motorcycle section at a KISS concert, and a Trucker’s Jamboree are all incredible and amusing scenes, dedicated to cultures where the engine sits on the altar. In a way, the images are a tribute to the innovations that began with oil: the extraordinary vehicles in the Bonneville Land Speed-Trials, the intricate architecture of the Nanpu Bridge Interchange in Shanghai. In another way, they’re shameful and embarrassing even to look at: airplane and helicopter graveyards; a Pennsylvania interchange packed with gas station on top of gas station, where no actual people live for miles and miles. It’s a culture not just of extraordinary innovation but of gross excess, and where that line is drawn is not for Burtynsky to say, it’s for each of us to decide and embrace.
The third gallery is a forecast of our future, if we can’t ever find that line. While the first two galleries contain images taken almost solely in the U.S. and Canada (Burtynsky is Canadian), this gallery is mostly Bangladesh, where massive oil tankers go to die. Men and even very young boys earn wages by breaking down the ships in incredibly dangerous and ugly work. In an image called Recycling #2, three young men stand in black sludge up to their ankles, an almost sickly laughable twist on what most Americans consider the clean and pure act of “recycling.”
Image Courtesy: www.EdwardBurtynsky.com - Click the image to see more pictures
Click here to explore more about Mr. Burtynsky and his impeccable work.
Note: Oil opens October 3 and runs through December 13. Tomorrow, hear Edward Burtynsky and Dr. William Rees (contributor to the exhibition catalog) speak about the exhibit at 4 p.m. $10, or free with gallery admission. The Corcoran Gallery of Art is located at 500 17th Street NW, see web site for hours and admission.
(Source & Image: LA Times)
Gasoline consumption in California began falling in April 2006, and for 11 straight calendar quarters dropped below gas use in the year-earlier period even though the state added 790,000 new licensed drivers. First-quarter gasoline use hasn’t yet been released by the California State Board of Equalization, which on Thursday said Californians consumed 1.21 billion gallons of gasoline in January, down 22 million gallons, or 1.8%, from the previous January.
That was California’s first brush with $3-a-gallon gas. It lasted just two weeks in 2005, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of filling stations, but it was long enough to trigger behavior changes.
For all of 2005, gasoline consumption rose by just 30 million gallons to 15.95 billion gallons, according to the state equalization board, which gathers the numbers from taxes paid by fuel distributors. The pace was well off the boom years from 2000 to 2004, when gas use grew by an average of 343 million gallons a year.
“The tipping point is $2,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, senior energy analyst at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy in Houston. “People start to respond to fuel prices and make changes at $2 a gallon. At $3 a gallon, it becomes noticeable. It really gains in momentum. The longer the price stays higher than $3, the deeper and more lasting the structural changes.”
In 2007, with gasoline prices above $3 a gallon for 34 weeks, California consumption fell 270 million gallons below 2005 levels. In 2008, with gasoline topping $4.58 a gallon in July and the depth of the nation’s economic crisis beginning to sink in, Californians used 910 million fewer gallons than they did in 2005.
Messer turned to a different fuel. Stephen Stone of Norwalk bought an all-electric Zap Xebra. Robert Cruz of Oxnard went back to a 1970 Volkswagen because it got better mileage than anything else he’s driven. Alan Thomas of Oxnard adds a few gallons of transmission fluid to his tank to cut fuel costs.
“Sometimes I just used to go out and take a drive,” Thomas said. “When was the last time you heard anyone say, ‘I’m going out for a drive’? I don’t drive any more than I have to now.”
Millions of other Americans also are parking more. A 2008 Brookings Institution report called “The Road . . . Less Traveled” found that “consistent annual growth” in vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. leveled off in 2004. By 2007, miles driven declined for the first time since 1980 and at the fastest rate since the end of World War II, said Robert Puentes, senior fellow at Brookings’ metropolitan policy program and a co-author of the report.
“Americans have simply been driving less. . . . At the same time driving has declined, transit use is at its highest level since the 1950s, and Amtrak ridership just set an annual ridership record in 2008,” Puentes wrote.
Some experts say Americans are far less likely to accept high fuel prices than their European counterparts.
In the U.S., “we have always had cheap gasoline for the most part and most Americans don’t feel like they have that much of an alternative,” said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “The higher prices go here, the more people feel like they are being taken for a ride.”
Another factor in changed driving behavior is anger, said Suzanne Shu, an assistant professor of marketing at the UCLA Anderson School of Business. Price surges in other consumer items, such as milk, tend to get lost in larger grocery bills. But buying gas is often a trip of its own, and the price is “in your face, almost every block,” Shu said.
Click here to read the entire article.
(Source: Autoblog)
You read it right! It is one thousand four hundred and forty five miles from a single tank of gas! Analyzed from any angle, these numbers are amazing, especially from a Ford vehicle, a brand that is not well associated with thrift fuel consumption in the past. Though the goal was to clear 1000 miles, the hyper-milers knocked that number and added 445 miles more , beating their own estimates to set a new world record.
For the high-mileage odyssey, the Fusion hybrid was pushed to an average of 81.5 mpg. Even considering that hypermiling techniques were employed to reach these numbers, we’re quite impressed, as the event took place on city streets and public freeways, not on a closed course. Better still, the entire 69-hour event raised $8,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. You can read the details of how the driving teams managed the 80 mpg in the official press release – and no, they didn’t find a thousand-mile downhill road.
PRESS RELEASE:
The 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid 1,000 Mile Challenge Car
* Drivers trained in mileage-maximizing techniques achieve 1,445 miles on a single tank of gas in a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid – averaging 81.5 mpg in Washington, D.C. – and set world record for gasoline-powered, midsize sedan
* The Fusion Hybrid 1,000-Mile Challenge proves that fuel-efficient driving techniques can nearly double a vehicle’s EPA-rated fuel economy
* The demonstration of the Fusion Hybrid’s ultra high-mileage potential also raised more than $8,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
WASHINGTON, April 28, 2009 – Drivers trained in mileage-maximizing techniques such as smooth acceleration and coasting to red lights were able to get an extraordinary 1,445.7 miles out of a single tank of gas during a fund-raising effort in Washington, D.C. that concluded today. They did it by averaging 81.5 miles per gallon in an off-the-showroom floor, non-modified 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, the most fuel-efficient midsize car in North America – nearly doubling its U.S. certified mileage.
The Fusion Hybrid 1,000-Mile Challenge started at 8:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday, April 25, from Mount Vernon, Va., and ended this morning at 5:37 a.m. on George Washington Parkway in Washington, D.C. After more than 69 continuous hours of driving, the Fusion Hybrid finally depleted its tank and came to a stop with an odometer reading of 1,445.7 miles – setting a world record for gasoline-powered, midsize sedan.
The challenge team, which included NASCAR star Carl Edwards, high mileage trailblazer Wayne Gerdes and several Ford Motor Company engineers, raised more than $8,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) by exceeding the goal of 1,000 miles on a single tank of gas. The Fusion Hybrid’s official estimated range is approximately 700 miles per tank.
“Not only does this demonstrate the Fusion Hybrid’s fuel efficiency, it also shows that driving technique is one of the keys to maximizing its potential,” said Nancy Gioia, director, Ford Sustainable Mobility Technologies and Hybrid Vehicle Programs. “The fact that we were able raise much needed funds for JDRF while raising the bar on fuel efficient driving performance made the effort doubly worthwhile.”
Maximizing mileage
A team of seven drivers prepared for the challenge by learning a few mileage-maximizing techniques, most of which can be used in any vehicle to improve fuel economy, but are especially useful in the Fusion Hybrid where the driver can take advantage of pure electric energy at speeds below 47 mph.
CleanMPG.com founder Wayne Gerdes, an engineer from Illinois who coined the term “hypermiling” to describe the mileage-maximizing techniques, provided the pointers. They include:
* Slowing down and maintaining even throttle pressure;
* Gradually accelerating and smoothly braking;
* Maintaining a safe distance between vehicles and anticipating traffic conditions;
* Coasting up to red lights and stop signs to avoid fuel waste and brake wear;
* Minimize use of heater and air conditioning to reduce the load on the engine;
* Close windows at high speeds to reduce aerodynamic drag;
* Applying the “Pulse and Glide” technique while maintaining the flow of traffic;
* Minimize excessive engine workload by using the vehicle’s kinetic forward motion to climb hills, and use downhill momentum to build speed; and
* Avoiding bumps and potholes that can reduce momentum
“You become very aware of your driving because you’re constantly looking for opportunities to maximize mileage, and a more aware driver is a safer driver, too,” said Gil Portalatin, Ford hybrid applications manager.
In addition, it is important for Fusion Hybrid drivers to manage the battery system’s state of charge through the use of regenerative braking and coasting, and balancing the use of the electric motor and gas engine in city driving to avoid wasting fuel.
Fusion Hybrid drivers also can stay more connected to the hybrid driving experience with Ford’s SmartGaugeTM with EcoGuide, a unique instrument cluster that helps coach drivers on how to optimize performance of their hybrid.
The Challenge
The Fusion Hybrid 1,000-Mile Challenge team took turns driving several routes in and around the national capital over the course of approximately three days and nights. The route involved elevation changes, and ranged from the relatively open George Washington Parkway to a 3-mile stretch in the heart of the city that is clogged with roughly 30 traffic signals.
“The Fusion Hybrid works brilliantly,” Gerdes said. “When you don’t need acceleration power while driving around town, the gas engine shuts down seamlessly. There’s not another hybrid drivetrain in the world that does that as effectively. The Fusion engineering team really knocked it out of the park.”
Ford NASCAR star Carl Edwards took time away from the high speed world of professional car racing to contribute to the Fusion Hybrid team’s success in D.C.
“It was exciting to be an active part in this challenge. The fact that it will help spread the word about the Fusion Hybrid’s great mileage, and help out a great charity, makes it even more special,” said Edwards, whose ’99’ team has used fuel-saving techniques to win races. “There’s no question that the Fusion Hybrid will help consumers save fuel when they drive it. Having driven the car, I feel strongly about how great it is – so strong that I’ve purchased one myself.“
ALGIERS (AFP) – OPEC wants to see oil prices rising to more than 70 dollars a barrel, the oil cartel’s secretary general Abdalla El-Badri said Sunday.
“The price of 50 dollars is not enough to cover investment costs for the future,” El-Badri told reporters in Algiers.
“The price which allows reasonable and acceptable revenues is more than 70 dollars a barrel,” he added.
El-Badri was speaking after talks with Energy Minister Chakib Khelilahead of the next meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna on May 28.
“There are positive signs of a recovery in the world economy, which we have to take into account before taking a decision on the future,” he added, in response to a question regarding a possible cut in oil production.
“Our forecasts are coherent, those of the IEA (International Energy Agency) are exaggerated,” he added.
On April 15, OPEC lowered its forecast for demand for crude oil in 2009 because the drop in consumption caused by the worldwide recession.
It now says production will drop by 1.6 percent, or 1.37 million barrels a day, down to 84.18 mbd. Its previous report in March forecast a drop of 1.01 million barrels a day to 85.55 mpd.
The IEA, in its latest forecast earlier this month, cut oil consumption by 1.0 million barrels a day for 2009 to 83.4 million barrels, citing the weak global economy as a factor.
TransportGooru Musing: With the entire world moving with heavy investments towards alternative energy such as electric vehicles, OPEC’s “The price of 50 dollars is not enough to cover investment costs for the future” sounds idiotic. OPEC will continue to survive as a group until the developing economies in Asia and Africa figure a way out of oil-dependency.
(Source: TED)
Forget about the hybrid auto — Shai Agassi says it’s electric cars or bust if we want to impact emissions. His company, Better Place, has a radical plan to take entire countries oil-free by 2020.
Just over a year ago, BusinessWeek ran a great piece aboutShai Agassi and his audacious plans to produce a mass market electric vehicle and thereby revolutionize the auto industry. So it was great to get an update from the former software entrepreneur turned zero emission transport guru on the main TED stage earlier today.
Business Week’s report on Mr. Agassi’s TED presentation offers this: “Much of what Agassi had to say was familiar, but it was fascinating to hear how the Better Place project is scaling to places such as Australia and Hawaii (it started life in Israel, with the support of politician Shimon Peres.) The emergence of Car 2.0, as Agassi described it, entails an entirely new business model for car ownership, whereby drivers will pay for miles as they currently pay for minutes on a phone. And Agassi, who cut an imposing and definitive figure on stage, professed to be interested in only two figures: Zero, as in zero emissions; and infinity, as in this model should be available for every driver, worldwide.”
The quote from Wired Magainze nicely captures Mr. Agassi’s personality – Charismatic & convincing.
“Shai Agassi has only one car, no charging stations, and not a single customer—yet everyone who meets him already believes he can see the future.” – Wired
Here is Mr. Agassi’s presentation at TED.
The agency said demand would drop for a second consecutive year for the first time since 1982-1983.
In its closely watched monthly survey, the IEA cut its forecast for demand this year by 270,000 barrels a day to 84.4 million barrels a day — 1.5 percent lower than a year earlier.
The Paris-based agency said demand for oil last year was estimated to have slid 0.4 percent to 85.7 million barrels a day.
To put that into some kind of concrete yet still unimaginably large and therefore abstract terms, the IEA estimates that the world will consume 270,000 fewer barrels of oil every day. On a related not, a professor at Cambridge University is predicting a 40-50% drop in greenhouse gas emissions due to the global economic downturn.” reports GreenDaily.com
Click here to read more.
(Source: GM’s Fast Lane Blogs, via TreeHugger )
GM
Defends the Volt’s Design
A recent Carnegie Mellon University study (pdf) challenged the real-world gasoline savings and cost effectiveness of plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt. GM’s Vice President Global Program Management, Jon Lauckner, who has been involved in the Volt project responded on the company’s blog. Find out what he had to say below.
All-Electric Range
The first thing is the electric range of the car. Somewhat strangely, the CMU study found that “for urban driving conditions and frequent charges every 10 miles or less, a low-capacity PHEV sized with an AER (range) of about 7 miles would be a robust choice for minimizing gasoline consumption, cost and greenhouse gas emissions.”
7 miles? Really?
Well, Jon Lauckner responds:
I’ll cut to the chase; for starters, the study’s endorsement of plug-in vehicles with only a “token” electric-only range (seven miles) overlooks the inconvenience of recharging for the vast majority of drivers (approx. 90 percent) with a daily commute that exceeds seven miles. I mean, honestly, how many customers are going to stop every seven miles and wait at least 30 minutes (if a car has a high-capacity charger like the Volt with the same level of electrical energy to match it) for their battery to be recharged? […] And, if customers don’t recharge during the day, these “token” plug-ins will run primarily on gasoline. How is that consistent with reducing green house gas emissions and our dependence on petroleum?
Click here to read the entire article.
