A study released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) on March 21, 2011, predicts that as the gasoline prices continue to increase, Americans will turn to public transportation in record numbers.

The report claimed that if gas prices reach $4 a gallon across the nation, public transportation sectors can expect an additional 670 million passenger trips a year, resulting in more than 10.8 billion trips in a year. Furthermore, if pump prices climb to $5 a gallon, experts believe an additional 1.5 billion passenger trips can be expected, resulting in more than 11.6 billion trips per year. And finally, if the gas prices reach up to $6 a gallon, experts foresee an additional 2.7 billion passenger trips, resulting in 12.9 billion trips per year.

With this report in hand, the APTA has begun encouraging riders to tell Congress they need more transportation options.

William Millar, the APTA President, states that, “The volatility of the price at the pump is another wake up call for our nation to address the increasing demand for public transportation services. We must make significant, long-term investments in public transportation or we will leave our fellow Americans with limited travel options, or in many cases stranded without travel options. Public transit is the quickest way for people to beat high gas prices if it is available.

Riders can visit publictransportation.org or text TRANSIT to 86677 to get in contact with Congress about the need for more transportation options.

TreeHugger

So, does it make sense for the world’s largest economy to be heavily dependent for oil in a region where disruption is always a possibility? No, it doesn’t. Yet America has been reliant on the Middle East for oil for most of the automobile age. Only recently has there been any effort to switch to alternative fuels and lower America’s dependence on imported oil.

Even though the U.S. has increased domestic drilling, they wouldn’t be able to pump its daily consumption of 18.7 million barrels per day without the imported fuel to make up the difference. In November 2010 alone, the country imported an average of 8.25 million barrels per day. Nearly 2 million of these came from the Middle Eastern oil producers, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

What then is the solution to becoming less dependent on foreign oil? Many believe that the answer could be in domestic natural gas.

HOME GROWN FUEL

The only domestic energy source that has the potential to end the country’s dependence on oil for transportation fuel in the U.S. is natural gas. Natural gas is abundant, competitively priced, clean, and available domestically.

Of all of its good qualities, abundance is the most appealing advantage. The Potential Gas Committee (PGC) has estimated that the U.S. had 1,836 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of recoverable natural gas as of 2008, out of a total future natural gas resource base of 2,074 Tcf. This would meet the nation’s natural gas demand for about 100 years, based on the nation’s current consumption rate.

Of the 22.8 Tcf of natural gas consumed in the U.S. in 2009, 90% was produced domestically. Furthermore, most imports of dry natural gas came from a reliable trading partner: Canada.

Natural gas has become a highly used energy source for industrial, commercial, and residential uses. However, it has yet to play a larger role in transportation fuel, aside from use in bus fleets and other industrial fleets.

WHY SIZE MATTERS

Two factors make the use of natural gas unappealing to consumers. The first is its lack of compactness. Large vehicles, such as buses and vans, are able to accommodate the large tanks that natural gas requires. However, smaller cars and modest-size SUVs cannot accommodate the large tanks without displacing volume from features that car buyers find appealing: trunk and cargo space.

The second issue stems from the lack of natural-gas filling stations. Even with more stations being added each month, there are only around 1,100 stations throughout the entire U.S. Compare this number to the more than 160,000 gasoline stations and it is obvious why it is more convenient and appealing to have vehicles which use gasoline.

To combat these two issues, public policy would have to heavily encourage natural gas fuel use in order to increase its role as a transportation fuel. U.S. drivers will not be likely to leave behind their gasoline habits, even if gasoline becomes more on a per mile basis than natural gas.

PRICING

Critics of natural-gas point out that the current price of natural gas would likely go up if drivers shifted in large numbers to natural gas. Of the nearly 12 million natural-gas vehicles in use globally, only 110,000 are found in the U.S.

A counterargument to the critics’ point is to simply ask: What is going to happen to the price of gasoline in the upcoming years? The International Energy Agency predicts that global oil demand will rise in 2011-2012 due to economic expansions worldwide. This prediction could be wrong and the demand could always drop.

Currently the price of oil is about $91 per barrel. However, given the rising demand in emerging-market economies for oil, how likely is it for the price of oil to stay the same? As global demand accelerates, it has been predicted that oil may top $100 per barrel in 2011.

FOREIGN OIL DEPENDENCY

As history has shown, events in the Middle East are subject to periods of interruption. Whether or not the price of gasoline remains stable or declines, it will not eliminate the liability of U.S. oil consumption.

Clearly oil will remain an essential fuel in the upcoming years; however, the U.S. needs to see that the energy future will be reliant not only on the price, but also on the reliability of the energy sources.  Natural gas could provide the U.S. with the necessary solution to the uncertain international energy dependence.

DailyFinance

In 14 independent studies, scientists have found that Agave yields greatly exceed the yields of other biofuel feedstocks, such as corn, soybean, sorghum, and wheat. Furthermore, scientists have noted that there are various other species of Agave in existences that have not yet been evaluated.

Sarah Davis, a bioenergy analyst, states, “We need bioenergy crops that have a low risk of unintended land use change. Biomass from Agave can be harvested as a co-product of tequila production without additional land demands. Also, abandoned Agave plantations in Mexico and Africa that previously supported the natural fiber market could be reclaimed as bioenergy cropland. More research on Agave species is warranted to determine the tolerance ranges of the highest yielding varieties that would be most viable for bioenergy production in semi-arid regions of the world.”

The economical and environmental sustainability of Agave could greatly stimulate the economies in Africa, Australia, and Mexico, where large amounts of land are unused due to the arid climate.

ScienceDaily

The Sun Bag comes in 37 different colors so there is probably one to fit your liking. Optional custom printing is also available if you want to make the bag that much more personalized.

via Ubergizmo

The PVC-Free Solar Camping Shower is an environmentally friendly gadget that any camper would appreciate. This simple eco gadget is lightweight, simple, and easy to use. The solar shower works by absorbing energy from the sun. Just fill the the bag with water and the black coloring of the camping shower transfers the solar energy to the water inside, heating it up. Fill up this bag in the morning, let it sit in the sun during the day, and a free hot shower will be ready for you in the afternoon or evening.

Don’t worry about the water being too hot because it is not going to happen. The solar camping shower isn’t going to boil water but it will be much more enjoyable than a dip in the lake. In addition to being environmentally friendly and ultra portable, the system is free of harmful and nasty chemicals. The black bag does not contain chlorine, azo dyes, PVC, or any other chemicals that would leach into the water when left out in the sun. Available in 2.5 gallon, 4 gallon, and 5 gallon sizes, the solar camping shower is efficient, safe, and eco conscious.
Seattle Sports

No one likes sitting in a car and staring at a red streetlight, waiting for it to change colors. All you can do is stare as the time slowly passes. You become frustrated and impatience, wondering if somehow the light has broken and is never going to change. And then, when it finally turns green, the person in front of you continues to sit idly because he or she wasn’t paying attention. The Eko Stoplight  removes the uncertainty by letting you know just home much longer you have to wait.

Designed by Damjan Stanković, the Eko Stoplight features an outer ring of red lights that countdown the remaining time until the signal changes. That means that while you don’t know the light’s duration in terms of seconds, but you do know when the change is approaching. Stanković created the traffic system with environmental benefits in mind. As people sit at a red light, they let their engine idle because they need to be ready to move whenever the light turns green. This wastes gas as the engine idles but doesn’t move anywhere. With the Eko Stoplight, the driver can shut off the engine as they wait and start up again a few moments before the light changes. This design could definitely reduce the waste of cars simple sitting in front of long lights with no idea when they will actually be able to drive through.

Source: Yanko

As high gas prices continue to make driving expensive and solar powered hover crafts remain out of reach, many people are turning to their bicycles for their daily commutes. Cycling is an environmentally friendly and healthy way to travel, but there are some clear disadvantages. To address some safety concerns, BiCygnals has created a turn signal unit that mounts onto the back of your bike. One of the primary concerns when it comes to the safety of bikers is making sure that drivers notice you. In the blink of an eye, an inattentive driver can threaten the life of cyclists. The BiCygnals will hopefully improve the notice of drivers and make roads easier to share.

Equipped with super bright LED lights, BiCygnals makes it easy and effective to announce when a cyclist is going to turn. The left and right signal indicators are controlled wirelessly by the cyclist. There is even a bright red stop signal that lights up when the cyclists pulls on the brakes. The system does require quite a few batteries to run (4 AA in the front unit and 4 AAA in the rear unit), but the LED lights ought to be pretty energy efficient. Cyclists that share the roads with cars, especially in the city, should take every precaution to ensure they are as safe as possible. The BiCygnal will certainly play its part.

Check out some of the companies other products. They are all sleek, stylish, and well designed.

BiCygnals

Electric cars are limited by one very obvious characteristic: the energy density of the batteries doesn’t allow the car to travel very far on a single charge. Plus, when the car eventually uses up the power, it will take a long time for the electric car to recharge. A New Zealand company called Halo IPT has come up with a cool design that will recharge electric cars as they are being charged. The design uses induction loops that would need to be installed into the road and recharges the electric car as you drive over them. This is basically a scaled up version of the Powermat for cellphones and iPods.

Halo IPT’s idea looks pretty cool and would certainly address the limitations of electric cars, but the amount of infrastructure needed would be obscene. Also, I strongly doubt the energy efficiency of having electrified induction loops buried under our roads. This design is creative but I don’t see it as a readily implemented solution.

Halo IPT

This ultra-efficient camper stove doesn’t run off of petroleum or firewood like your traditional portable cooker. This compact stove needs nothing but small sticks and twigs in order to support a flame. This rapid heating system is efficient enough to raise one liter of water to a boil in about four minutes. The increased efficiency of the stove can be attributed to the solid state thermoelectric generator and electric fan system. Once the fire gets going, the generator kicks on and creates electricity using the excess energy from the flame. This energy powers an electric fan that removes wood gas from the burning twigs and mixes in oxygen in the process. The added oxygen creates a clean and high energy flame.

The BioLite was first developed for use in the third world. It’s light weight and compact size makes it perfect for use as a portable cooking device. The stove’s ability to run off of small twigs makes it perfect for hikers who don’t want to carry fuel or search for usable firewood. The increased efficiency of the flame allows the unit to burn clean and bright while producing the minimum amount of smoke. The BioLite ultra-efficient camper stove is perfect for campers searching for an eco friendly way to cook.

BioLite via Electric Tree House

Here is the companies message and mission:

“These bottles, which are made from petroleum, find their way into landfills, rivers, lakes and roadsides. And they never decompose. We think this is unacceptable. It is also completely unnecessary. The technology exists today to convert these bottles into high-quality, durable fabrics which look and perform equal to their virgin counterparts. All of our GreenSmart fabrics are made from 100% certified post-consumer PET bottles. You get a top quality product made from one of the most durable fabrics in the world, polyester, AND save the planet at the same time.”

By using %100 post-consumer materials in their produces, GreenSmart is giving new purpose to enormous quantities of recycled material. Recycled your plastic bottles is only the first step in a sustainable lifestyle. It is also important to support companies that make the extra effort to use environmentally responsible practices instead of taking all the shortcuts in the pursuit of quick profits.

Source ElectricTreeHouse