A $10M dollar prize for a commercially viable 100mpg car. The X PRIZE is an international competition designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles. The independent and technology-neutral competition is open to teams from around the world that can design, build and bring to market 100 MPGe (miles per gallon energy equivalent) vehicles that people want to buy, and that meet market needs for price, size, capability, safety and performance.

Obama has touched on many topics on his web site and in his energy policy papers. It seems as if he is looking for points by mentioning every type of alternative energy or pet project currently out there. He has plans for coal, alternative energy, international cooperation, and lots of mandated targets. As you would [...]

I will spend some time reviewing the Obama and McCain campaign materials for Energy Policy. As this blog highlights, my interests are reducing/eliminating our dependency on foreign oil, incentivize private industry to develop alternative energy sources, reduce our overall energy consumption, and reduce our carbon and methane emissions from the production of energy. I would [...]

UPDATE: In thinking about this more, let’s kill several birds with one barrel. Or more specifically, how about we (the government) sell the oil to the oil companies at below market rates instead. After all, this was an investment the government made with our money, and for once it actually had a return. Unlike almost [...]

An excellent article about the Brazilian Biofuel industry. They are far ahead of almost all countries with the production of biofuel from sugar as opposed to our idiotic pursuit using corn. They produce close to 4.7 billion gallons a year and are looking for the US as a market to supply. Of course, our policies [...]

Driving down the Mass Pike every morning, by myself, in my hybrid, I always wondered why wouldn’t someone build a Disney style monorail down the middle of the Turnpike. Thinking about it, I guess it is not much different from current rail systems in town. How about a more flexible approach, where you can travel [...]

Again, politicians are playing around the edges and not dealing head on with the issues. We have the resources now to reduce the price of Oil. See article below http://mygreensuit.com/2008/04/25/reduce-oil-prices/ What we do not have is the political will. Recent cable news chatter is starting to focus on the limitations we put on oil companies [...]

This is government information from the Energy Information Administration.http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html In summary, this is where our imports come from; Country CANADA 21% SAUDI ARABIA 15% MEXICO 16% NIGERIA 12% VENEZUELA 11% IRAQ 5% ANGOLA 6% KUWAIT 2% COLOMBIA 1% ALGERIA 5% ECUADOR 3% BRAZIL 2% CONGO (BRAZZAVILLE) 1% CHAD 1% RUSSIA 0% Obviously we have some [...]

From the few mentions I have heard from the present political candidates, there actually might be some limited traction around incentives to promote innovation around alternative energy.  The model mentioned frequently is the X-Prize for space travel.  From most measure this seemed to work, good progress on the technology, and a proposed business model (TBD), [...]