Chaffee awards and NY Times article

Great first show today.  Streaming live again at 4.  Go to Arpin Broadcast Network (arpin.tv.com) to watch. Thank you, Julian Dash, for a great job.

Thursday night I am honored to accept a Chaffee Environmental award on behalf of Arpin Group.  The award recongnizes our effort in installing the first electric auto recharging station in RI.  Timing is great as our first show for Renweable Now broadcast on a live stream earlier in the day.

Today's NY Times Opinion Page does a great job of citing some of the compelling statics on the future gowth of EV's, and hybrids, and reports "The Electrification Coalition, an electric-vehicle advocacy group, estimates that if, by 2040, 75 percent of all miles driven in the United States are powered by electricity, oil consumption by light-duty vehicles will drop from the current level of nearly nine million barrels a day to two million."

Here is the link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/opinion/10Fletcher.html?hp.

Here is the first part of the Opinion:  "THE American response to rising gas prices has been depressingly predictable. We’re shocked to see prices top $4 a gallon, as if it’s never happened before. We demand that something be done — not to reduce our dependence on oil, but to cut the cost of a fill-up. Fortunately the White House is standing behind a goal that could genuinely transform the nation’s automotive fleet: putting one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.

The plan is ambitious, but it’s more realistic than its critics maintain. Some argue that because batteries can’t yet propel a full-size car 500 miles on the highway and recharge in a few minutes, we should give up and focus on squeezing better mileage out of existing technology

But many of the electric vehicles that will count toward President Obama’s goal won’t run on electricity alone. They will combine batteries, electric motors and internal-combustion engines to use as little gasoline as possible while still doing everything Americans expect their cars to do. Electrification is not an all-or-nothing proposition — it’s a process, the gradual replacement of gas-burning engines with batteries and electric motors.

The process has already begun. Last December, the first mass-produced electric vehicles of the 21st century — the Chevrolet Volt, which runs on battery power for up to 50 miles before a backup gasoline engine kicks in, and the Nissan Leaf, a purely battery-powered five-passenger hatchback — began shipping to customers. Tesla Motors has been selling small numbers of expensive electric sports cars since 2008. Ford will soon come out with a plug-in model of its own, and Toyota will release a plug-in version of the Prius hybrid. (The current Prius can only run gas-free for short stretches and at low speeds.)"

Great article.  Read the rest when you can.  And my thanks to the wonderful people at the Environmental Council for their award and honor and advising me about this article and contributing to the blog.