Ecoscraps

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Currently, the average price for a gallon of E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) is $2.67. That’s amazing if you think about it, since a gallon of ethanol requires about 16 lbs. of corn to produce.

Take a look at this interactive map to see what E85 costs in your area.

Via: gas2.org

The grand-prize winners of the 2008 Shell Eco-Marathon race (pictured above) got an astonishing 2,843 MPG. Then again, is anyone surprised that a plastic canopy hooked to an engine got pretty good gas mileage?

The Renewable Fuels Association estimated that due to government mandates, by 2015 one-third of the U.S. corn harvest will be turned into ethanol for use as an automotive fuel.

That’s an increase of 234% in the next 7 years in the amount of corn being used as fuel.

Who’s hungry?

See the full story here.

At the 2008 Geneva Auto show, Mercedes debuted their new diesel-hybrid SUV, which gets a whopping 40-MPG. Add the latest in emissions-control technology, and this vehicle breaks the world’s record for lowest carbon-emitting SUV.

See the full story at Gas 2.0.

“He just came out of nowhere. I didn’t see him.” Most of the 700 automobile drivers who hit and kill a bicyclist in the US each year say something similar. (In France, they say, “Je ne l’ai pas vue.”)

If you are an automobile driver and you fail this test, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re an unsafe driver, but please, remember to stay aware of bicyclists and pedestrians.

I guess when diesel costs $4.29 a gallon, as it does here in Northern California, money really does grow on trees in the form of the diesel tree!  The Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii can be tapped like a rubber tree, to yield natural diesel fuel.

Source: Treehugger 

The Japanese man Kenichi Horie is sailing across the Pacific in a boat powered by. . . waves?

The boat has two fins that raise and lower with the tide, providing a petroleum- free alternative to motoring through doldrums.

Check out the full story here.

Gas 2.0 writer, Clayton B. Cornell, meets Mr. Biodiesel himself, Josh Tickell, at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Tickell is author of several books on biodiesel, including From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank and Biodiesel America.

Tickell was at Sundance screening his new film on biodiesel, Fields of Fuel.

Use of public transportation in the United States rose to its highest level in 50 years last year, with a growth rate of 2.1%.

That’s a 32% increase since 1995.

via GreenCarCongress

Photo Credit

Electric-car company ZAP announced it will offer $24,000 plug-in conversions for the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrids, making them plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).

It’s sort of like doubling your fuel efficiency for the cost of a new car…

Source: Gas 2.0