Does organic food make you a jerk?

This is the question that's been popping up in all kinds of anti-organic food blogs over the past week or so. And it all started after a new study suggested organic foods reduce prosocial behavior and harshen moral judgments.

What a load of crap!

Before I even read the study, I suspected it's findings would be about as reliable as Chinese drywall. And I was right. Although one of my favorite writers today, Jess Zimmerman, did the best job at proving how ridiculous this study was to begin with. You can read her piece on this one here.

Who Says Wall Street Can't be Trusted?

It always cracks me up when folks act surprised that something shady went down on Wall Street. As if this is something new.

Last Friday, as those lowly retail investors rushed to get a piece of the much-hyped Facebook IPO, Wall Street hustlers were laughing their asses off – all the way to the offshore bank. And you know what – they're already on to the next one. Because that's how it goes.

Of course, I don't mean to criticize a system that can allow average folks to build wealth. Certainly such a system has benefited me over the years. And if you know how to play it right, you can be quite successful. But ignoring the fact that the game is rigged – and not in your favor – will only lead to more losses and more anger directed towards Wall Street.

As far as the Facebook fiasco is concerned? Well, Mark Gongloff over at the Huffington Post offers a pretty spot-on analysis, suggesting that the Facebook stock collapse has contributed to mistrust of Wall Street. You can check it out here.

The wind power plant, called El Arrayan, will be a joint venture between Pattern Energy and AEI, which are two of the leading independent energy companies currently developing in the country. The deal for the turbines also includes delivery, installation and a five-year maintenance contract. Installation is expected to occur next spring with the plant to be operational in early 2014.

“This will be the 10^th wind power project that we are partnering on with Pattern Energy, and it is further evidence of the collaborative, long-term relationship our two companies enjoy. We greatly value Pattern Energy’s confidence in our technologies and are pleased to partner with them once again as they continue to provide clean, renewable energy to citizens in South and North America,” CEO of Siemens Wind Power Americas Business Unit Mark Albenze said. In addition, these turbines will be the first for Siemens in the Chilean market.

The El Arrayan Wind Farm is located about 200 miles north of the capitol Santiago. Once the wind farm is completed, it will be able to provide power to over 200,000 Chilean households.

Chile is a prime spot for wind energy. The Global Wind Energy Council estimates the country’s wind potential to be around 40 GW.

Additionally, the mining division of Antofagasta plc, the parent company of Minera Los Pelambres, has purchased an equity stake in the El Arrayan project.

With this agreement, TSDI will promote Ascent’s advanced solar modules by putting them on stations in China’s burgeoning public railway infrastructure.

Radiant, a leader in metal roofing and façade in China, will install the projects as well as oversee the retrofitting of Ascent’s PV modules on existing railway stations. With the help of this partnership, the total solar capacity in China’s public infrastructure could reach 800 MW in five years.

What makes this deal so important is the stature of TSDI in China. Currently, TSDI (which itself is a subsidiary of China Railway Group) ranks in the top 100 firms in China because of its overall strength and the quality of the over 25,000 miles of railways it has designed in China. In addition, TSDI designed China’s first large-scale multi-modal transport hub, the Beijing South Railway Station.

“We are honored to be involved with TSDI through this very important partnership, which will promote Ascent Solar’s transformational technology in a high-profile sector of China’s public infrastructure. This year, we look forward to working closely with TSDI and Radiant to design and develop systems to be installed beginning in 2013,” Ascent Solar President and CEO Victor Lee said.

The demonstration is designed to help speed up the commercialization of this new technology that uses solar energy rather than electric grid energy to air-condition a home while also producing renewable electricity at the same time.

The solar thermal technology, which has been installed at the SoCalGas Energy Resource Center in Downey, California, uses a system of mirrors and a tracking system to take the sun’s energy and focus it on PV solar panels to produce electricity and hot water. The hot water then replaces electricity or natural gas to run the air conditioning system.

This technique is expected to produce enough cooling power to cool two average-sized homes.

SoCalGas is actually the first utility in the US to test and demonstrate this cogeneration technology for the use of cooling. This is a pretty big deal considering air conditioning normally accounts for about 50% of a building’s electrical usage.

The concentrated solar cogeneration technology is modular and actually small enough to be installed on most commercial, industrial and institutional building rooftops. It also requires less space than PV solar systems while also giving more power and increased efficiencies because of its production of both electricity and heat. SoCalGas uses Cogenra Solar technology to create these modules.

“We are excited about the potential of this advanced solar cogeneration system to provide costs savings, sustainable energy and lead to the creation of green jobs…this project will showcase new solar technology and provide a renewable resource for our customers, which contributes to California’s renewable energy goals. The start-up of Cogenra’s system on the roof has been surprisingly simple and easy due to its modular plug and play design,” SoCalGas Vice President of Customer Solutions Hal D. Snyder recently said.

While the fish may look a bit like something from “Terminator” the technology isn’t nearly as frightening. If the fish works, it will detect specific types of pollution in seconds rather than weeks.

Currently, the fish are 5 feet long and cost around $31,600. In addition to being designed to swim like real fish, the entire body is outfitted with sensors that can detect pollutants leaking from ships or pipelines.

“Chemical sensors fitted to the fish permit real-time, in-situ analysis, rather than the current method of sample collection and dispatch to a shore based laboratory,” said Luke Speller, a scientist at BMT Group, the consultancy firm that led the project. Additionally, these fish are able to avoid obstacles, communicate with each other and know when to return to base when their eight-hour battery is low.

The development of the fish was partly funded by the EU and used technological expertise from institutions such as the University of Essex, University of Strathclyde, Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute and a division of Europe’s largest defense electronics group Thales.

The makers also say that they could make other types of robotic fish that could aid in oil spill clean up, underwater security, diver monitoring or search-and-rescue missio

The permit allows the ship Kulluk to be used in the Arctic Ocean, within arms reach of Alaska's northern shore.

As reported in the Huffington Post, the anti-drilling groups contest that such a ship and supporting vessels could pump extremely harmful toxins and greenhouse gases into the skies, exacerbating an area of the world already taking it on the proverbial chin because of climate change.

In addition, the groups also say the EPA gave the permit without paying attention to national environmental laws and regulations. The eight anti-drilling groups have asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to send permits back to the EPA, one for Kulluk and one for another Shell drilling ship called the Noble Discoverer. The EPA Appeals board has refused to review its decisions on both permits.

Shell is expecting a victory over the eight anti-drilling groups, its Alaskan spokesman Curtis Smith saying “The EPA finding of no significant impact to the Arctic Air shed and the subsequent validation of that permit by the EAB gives us a great deal of confidence that the permit, like the others we have achieved, will be upheld by the court.” Should the permits be upheld, the Noble Discoverer will drill three exploratory wells off the northwest coast while the Kulluk will drill two exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast.

The reason for the anti-drilling groups’ trepidation regarding drilling in Alaska (besides the obvious oil spill hazard that comes with all drilling projects) is because cleaning up a spill in waters that contain ice is very tricky as skimmers and other mechanical clean up devices have trouble working in that water.

If you want to see what happens when the fit hits the shan in the Arctic, take a look at what would've gone down had the BP spill taken place in those icy waters.

As reported in the Guardian UK, trillions of tons of water have been pumped from underground reservoirs then put into fields and pipes to help keep communities the world over watered.

The result, however, is that much of this water eventually ends up in the oceans.

The study was led by Yadu Pokhrel at the University of Tokyo and published in Nature Geoscience.

According to sea level expert Dr. Robert Nicholls of the University of Southampton, “The water being taken from deep wells is geologically old—there is no replenishment and so it is a one way transfer into the ocean…in the long run, I would still be more concerned about the impact of climate change, but this work shows that even if we stabilize the climate, we might still get sea level rise due to how we use water.”

Research has found that sea levels could rise anywhere from 30-100cm by 2100, which would put many coastal cities at risk. The new research has found that groundwater is a major contributor to this rise because in the past 50 years over 18 trillion tons of water has been removed from underwater aquifers without being replaced.

It is estimated that water pulled from deep wells has caused an average rise of a millimeter to the sea level every year since 1961. While 40% that is offset by the storing of freshwater in reservoirs, scientists believe this effect is rapidly diminishing as reservoir storage has leveled off recently.

Regulators say that test drilling in the proposed area found no groundwater until a depth of 1,800 feet.

“It would take thousands of years for any water to travel through an unsaturated zone that thick, and even longer for contaminates to travel the distance,” manager of groundwater protection for Utah Division of Water Quality Robert Herbert said.

That said, Herbert was repeatedly admonished by the judge at the hearings for failing to give simple answers in addition to at first claiming Utah only has to protect “usable” groundwater.

Living Rivers claims that tar sands mining can leave behind solvents and petrochemicals in waste pits that when affected by snowmelt and rain could wash the toxins into the ground.

US Oil Sands claims that a citrus-based solvent renders the oil-soaked sands as clean as beach sand, but that hasn’t stopped Living Rivers.

If the project is approved, the production of this oil sands would be a massive economic boon for Utah as an estimated 12 billion barrels of oil are buried in the state’s tar sands.

The company recently asked the State Corporation Commission to allow the purchase of solar-generated electricity from residential and small commercial customers at 15 cents per kWh under a five-year demonstration period. Currently, the average rate residential customers pay is 11 cents per kWh.

Under this program, the customer will buy his power from Dominion and sell all his solar-generated power back to the company.

While the demonstration project would be limited to 3,000 kW, the typical residential solar installation in the company’s Virginia service area is 4 kW, with the average commercial customer having a 22 kW system.

So far, 14,000 Virginians have been buying renewable energy certificates to support the development of clean sources of power through Dominion’s Green Power plan. The subscribers’ contributions will pay for the solar energy program.

According to Dominion’s manager of customer solutions Dianne Corsello, “Nothing in the Green Power program is going to change…we’re just going to use the funds for Virginia solar.”

Good for them. Profits are a good thing. They are a sign of success, and successful companies are part of a growing economy. But the flip side of this equation is the billions of dollars worth of subsidies going to these same companies every year — at a time when our national debt is so large it is becoming a drag on our economy. Credit rating agencies already downgraded the quality of American debt, which will eventually make it more expensive for the government to borrow money, which further increases our debt.

We at Taxpayers for Common Sense have long called for the sunset of all energy subsidies, particularly those for fossil fuel extraction. They are going to companies that don't need them, and they create future liabilities for taxpayers that usually go unnoticed. Besides the myriad subsidies that giant oil and gas companies enjoy, which cost taxpayers billions a year, there are the costs of cleaning up spills and other disasters that usually get picked up by the feds. Same goes for the coal companies, some of which abandon their mines for taxpayers to clean up.

That's why I joined Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) in announcing the introduction of their bill to end special tax breaks and subsidies for oil, gas, and coal companies. This is the most comprehensive approach to ending these handouts, but it's just the latest proposal that targets energy subsidies.

President Barack Obama's proposed 2013 budget would eliminate just eight oil and gas subsidies, which would save the American taxpayer more than $38.6 billion over the next decade. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) introduced the "Energy Freedom and Economic Prosperity Act" to cut tax credits for oil drilling, nuclear power, solar panels, and wind turbines. Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a companion bill in the Senate. Though it only cut two unnecessary subsidies to oil and gas companies, it does suggest a bipartisan interest in finally getting rid of these wasteful energy subsidies. I support all these bills.

But don't be fooled into thinking Congress has turned over a new leaf. My organization recently joined a diverse group of advocates denouncing the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions or NAT GAS Act, which was looking to hitch a ride on the transportation bill. It would create new subsidies for natural gas from manufacturing and infrastructure to consumer tax credits that would carry a roughly $5 billion price tag. This would undo the progress made last year in finally cutting the ethanol subsidies.

So it's worth repeating: We need to cut energy subsidies! We can't afford them, and we don't need them anyway. Congress should start with the billions in subsidies going to the oil and gas industry every year. They are obsolete, ineffective, and a huge waste of valuable public resources at a time when we are rummaging through the couch cushions to find loose change to pay for our ballooning deficits and debt.

**Ryan Alexander is president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan federal budget watchdog.

Distributed via otherwords.org.

According to the Guardian UK, being chosen as the first British nuclear waste storage facility is not something the leader of the Kent county council and a local MP want their city known for.

“Let’s not sell Romney Marsh short; I believe it has and deserves a better future than being the dumping ground for all of Britain’s high level nuclear waste,” MP Damian Collins said in a statement on his own website. Paul Carter, the leader of the Kent council, additionally points out the “utter madness” of building a nuclear waste storage facility in an area that is not only an earthquake zone, but also one of the busiest shipping lanes on the planet.

The problem for Kent is that the British government is really hoping to push through this nuclear waste storage facility because of its commitment to build more nuclear power plants whilst cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions. However, as recently reported, many top electric companies are abandoning the idea of building nuclear power plants due to high investment and non-immediate returns.

Other communities are also asking the question posed in Kent: Where should the nuclear waste be buried then? The Shepway council, which is located rather close to reactors at Dungeness, sent out letters to 10,000 local residents asking them their views regarding nuclear waste disposal. Supporters of nuclear power such as David Godfrey are arguing that a facility would bring about more jobs in the area while also saying those with negative views are entitled to their own opinion, but he’s not “quite sure where some of the sensational views are coming from.”

My three word response to Mr. Godfrey: Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Company reps recently announced they will be buying equipment from SunPower Corp (NASDAQ:SPWR) and Bloom Energy in an effort to complete a solar farm near its core data center in North Carolina. Once it's up and running, it will generate 84 kWh of energy a year. In addition, Apple plans on using coal-free electricity at all three of its data centers.

“I’m not aware of any other company producing energy onsite at this scale…the plan we are releasing today includes solar farms and together they will be twice as big as we previously announced, thanks to the purchase of some land very near to the data center in Maiden, which will help us meet this goal,” Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer recently stated.

As reported in the Huffington Post, the spill in question happened July 1, 2011 when an estimated 63,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Yellowstone River. While ExxonMobil claims everything is copasetic now, workers for the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have found sheens and other signs of contamination at several sites downstream of the spill.

Some witnesses claim the sheen had to be oil-based and could have come from high waters from mountain snowmelt shifting sandbars and thus releasing previously trapped oil.

However, there is controversy with these claims. Tests on water and sediment samples at other sites have all come up negative, including testing on waters that had experienced a fish kill. In addition, Department of Environmental Quality scientist Laura Alvey, who had previously seen an oil sheen on an island east of Laurel has postulated some of the sheens may be naturally occurring, coming from sources such as algae or decomposing organisms. Also, while fish are still found with traces of oil contamination, state biologists claim the levels are low enough not to cause any problems to humans consuming the fish.

Pardon my skepticism, but I'll pass on the rainbow trout.

Moving on, many homeowners are still feeling the effects of the spill. Jim Swanson owns property along the river, which suffered extensive damage from the spill. ExxonMobil was able to recover only 1% of the oil, which had already contaminated over 70 miles of shoreline and islands in the river channel.

While tests on sheens on his property came back negative for toxic compounds, he said it still “boggles my mind” that the sheens could be from something besides oil. Additionally, Swanson said he can still see rings of degraded oil around trees and rocks on his property that was just left to break down naturally, even though ExxonMobil has a responsibility to clean up waste as part of its settlement with the state and its residents.

Swanson is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Exxon from riverfront landowners who justifiably say that the spill has affected their property values.

“The fact remains they only recovered 1%,” Swanson said.

The standards, decided upon by using feedback from manufacturers, consumer groups and environmental advocates, are expected to produce significant savings. For instance, the new standards on clothes washers will save households around $350 over the lifetime of the appliance while dishwashers will use 15% less energy and over 20% less water to function.

In all, these new standards can put a significant dent into a household’s monthly energy bills. Considering clothes washers and dishwashers account for more than 3% of residential energy use and 20% of indoor water use, the new standards will genuinely help consumers rein in costs.

“Working with consumer, industry and environmental groups to develop common-sense energy-saving appliance standards is an important part of the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above approach to American energy and the Energy Department’s efforts to reduce energy costs for consumers…Collectively, these energy efficiency standards for everyday appliances have saved American families hundreds of billions of dollars and offered consumers more efficient, less costly appliances without sacrificing performance,” Secretary Chu said in a statement.

The new standards will go into effect for clothes washers in 2015 and dishwashers next year.

Chinese solar modules are now expected to be hit with huge tariffs.

Here's what the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (pretty much the most vocal and rational voice on this issue) had to say. . .

Leaders and member companies of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE) today responded to the preliminary Anti-Dumping ruling by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) with the following statements:

Jigar Shah, the President of CASE, stated, “Today SolarWorld received one of its biggest subsidies yet – an average 31% tax on its competitors. What’s worse, it will ultimately come right out of the paychecks of American solar workers. Fortunately, these duties are much lower than the 250% tax that SolarWorld originally requested. This decision will increase solar electricity prices in the U.S. precisely at the moment solar power is becoming competitive with fossil fuel generated electricity.”

“At the same time, CASE recognizes that today’s decision is ‘preliminary.’  Between now and a final decision before the end of the year, there are many issues that will be addressed and whose resolution would lead to a significantly lower tariff.  CASE will continue to fight SolarWorld’s anti-consumer and anti-jobs efforts to ensure a better result for America’s solar industry,” continued Shah.

“The global market for solar cells and modules is more competitive than ever, and companies around the world, including SolarWorld, have been forced to cut prices to compete,” Shah added. “Ultimately, free global competition is good for American consumers and American workers. That’s why all of the major segments of the American solar industry, including solar manufacturers, have united to oppose SolarWorld’s reckless and hypocritical campaign to raise solar prices,” Shah concluded.

American Solar Project Development and Construction Companies Respond to Tariff Decision

The vast majority of the 100,000 jobs in the American solar industry are in sales, marketing, design, installation, engineering construction and maintenance of solar projects. These jobs depend on affordably-priced solar panels, and companies would have to lay-off workers if solar panel prices rise as a result of this investigation. Consequently, American solar developers and installers have expressed unified opposition to SolarWorld’s campaign to impose taxes on solar panels in the U.S., including:

According to Kevin Lapidus, Senior Vice President Legal and Government Affairs for SunEdison, “The U.S. solar industry has been growing, adding new solar electric systems, creating jobs and investing billions of dollars in the U.S. energy infrastructure.  By increasing the price of modules and therefore the price of solar energy, these tariffs will undermine the success of the U.S. solar industry and reduce the ability of solar energy to compete with electricity generated from fossil fuel.”

Ken Button, co-founder and President of Verengo Solar, stated, “As the second largest residential solar company in the country, Verengo has helped thousands of middle class families save money during tough economic times by installing solar.  Because our customers are very price sensitive, today’s decision to increase costs for solar cells and panels will make it harder for American families to access solar.”

American Solar Manufacturers Respond to Tariff Decision

The majority of American solar manufacturers, which outnumber those in the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM), have also expressed broad opposition to SolarWorld’s calls for protectionism in the American solar industry. Companies representing more than 3,000 American manufacturing jobs, including GT Advanced Technologies, REC Silicon, MEMC, Suntech, and others, have all expressed their opposition to trade barriers and to a U.S.-China solar trade war. By comparison, members of CASM, which supports SolarWorld’s trade fight, represent significantly fewer solar manufacturing jobs.

Tore Torvund, CEO of REC Silicon, with 500 solar jobs in the United States, commented, “This decision is short-sighted in the extreme and a severe setback for President Obama’s clean energy program with its goal of expanding the use of solar and other renewables. Further, we are very concerned about the increased likelihood that China will retaliate with their own tariffs on polysilicon exports from U.S. producers such as REC Silicon.  Triggering a solar trade war is not in the best interests of the U.S. solar industry or its customers.”

Tom Gutierrez, CEO of GT Advanced Technologies, with another 500 solar jobs in the United States, stated, “Today’s Department of Commerce decision subsidizes a German-owned company to the tune of an average 31% tax on its competitors and potentially harms U.S.-headquartered companies like GT Advanced Technologies, Dow Chemical, REC Silicon and MEMC. Ultimately, protectionism fosters dependence and high-cost business models, rather than the innovation and agile approaches required for companies to succeed in the global marketplace. Now is the time for the U.S. solar industry to move forward with the development of advanced technologies that create jobs and enhance our energy security—in spite of this new barrier. American solar manufacturing can compete without special protections.”

CASE Notes the Hypocrisy of SolarWorld’s Allegations

Finally, CASE noted that SolarWorld has openly admitted to selling its solar cells and modules at a loss, as all solar manufacturers globally are struggling to remain profitable amidst a highly competitive market environment for solar cells and modules.

According to testimony before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and media interviews, SolarWorld has stated it is selling its products below the cost of production in an effort to maintain market share. This aggressive pricing strategy is exactly what German-based SolarWorld accuses its China-based competitors of doing as part of petitions before the U.S. DOC’s anti-dumping investigation.

One Analyst’s View

According to one industry analyst, Jesse Pichel with Jeffries Group Inc., “Environmentalists and the unemployed should be equally disappointed with this decision because lower cost solar panels make solar more competitive with dirty fossil fuels. It should be clear by now that there are more U.S. jobs on the installation side of the solar business than on manufacturing. These cases have a chilling effect on business and it will linger for a long time. It’s unfortunate that SolarWorld has taken this scorched Earth approach and that they are distracting from the growth of U.S. jobs and affordable solar energy.”

This is the fifth such project being developed between the companies that's going to result in over 1,000 MW of installed capacity when all is said and done.

The farm, located on Maui, will use eight Siemens (NYSE:SI) turbines that will have the capability of generating enough power for 10,000 residents. The construction is set to begin shortly with the farm expected to go online by the end of the year.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to further expand our highly successful strategic partnership with BP Wind Energy while helping Hawaii advance one step closer to its renewable energy goals…our companies share a commitment to building and operating the Auwahi Wind farm in a way that reflects Maui’s commitment to environmental protection. We look forward to providing a stable supply of clean power to the region and becoming a long-term partner with the local community,” Vice President of Renewables for Sempra US Jim Sahagian said in a statement.

The Auwahi Wind farm will also utilize a first for the BP Wind and Sempra US Gas & Power partnership: Using a battery storage unit. This battery storage unit can store over 4 MW of energy which will be an enormous help regulating intermittent wind power and providing grid stability for the Maui Electric Company.

This project’s energy, which has already been sold under a long-term PPA to the Maui Electric Company, is a major step towards having Hawaii reach its goal of 40% of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030.

Should this report prove to be accurate, it would unveil a craven level of hypocrisy with the EU supporting waste disposal methods that violate its own guidelines. The report lists the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands as having the worst record on supporting waste incineration and landfill projects that would be illegal in Europe.

GAIA’s report maps out the severity of some of these claims, including financially supporting incinerator plants that burn reusable materials, such as a facility in Changsu in eastern China. According to the report, the bulk of the municipal solid waste in the developing world comes from food waste, garden waste, paper and cardboard. These materials could easily be reused, composted, recycled or fed to animals.

Additionally, the report outlines how CDM has assisted with landfill gas schemes like Doña Juana outside of Bogotá, Colombia. Ostensibly, the facility was meant to collect methane from waste, but it hasn’t worked and has, in fact, caused an increase in emissions. Many landfill projects backed by the CDM deliberately increase emissions in order to gain more carbon credits that can be bought by richer countries.

Just one more reason why carbon trading is a poor and complex solution to an easily rectifiable problem.

Support of these new waste projects is also endangering the livelihoods of those who collect recyclable goods as a way to generate income.

If these waste facilities continue to burn recyclable goods, a lot of folks will be out of work.

The report recommends municipal governments integrate these waste-pickers into the planning, development and implementation of municipal solid waste programs.

As reported in the LA Times, LA EV drivers behave in a very different manner than other EV drivers around the country. According to an Ecotality-sponsored report, LA EV drivers tend travel further in their cars, but they also charge their vehicles more often at public locations and are far more likely to charge at night to obtain less expensive electricity rates.

Ecotality (NASDAQ:ECTY) is the company that's overseeing a $230 million EV charging infrastructure project that is funded in part by the DOE. In addition to overhauling the charging infrastructure, it analyzes EV driving data from dozens of cities around the country.

Since 2010, Ecotality has installed 4,600 of 8,300 planned residential chargers and 1,600 of 5,000 public chargers. About 10% of the EV Project’s residential participants are located in LA and many are contributing their driving data to the company, including 422 Nissan Leaf owners.

Based on first quarter data, LA Leaf drivers charge away from home 24% of the time versus 19% nationally. LA drivers drive 28.1 miles between charges versus 27.4 nationally. According to Ecotality spokesman Steve Schey, this indicates a “greater confidence in their cars’ range and in finding charging locations away from their homes.”

In addition, LA drivers tend to charge their vehicles at odd hours due in part by an LA Department of Water and Power EV program that offers a discounted rate of 2.5 cents per kWh if they charge on weekends and between 8pm and 10am weekdays. Ecotality plans to continue to collect data nationally through the end of next year.

As reported on Talking Points Memo, IBM’s Ehningen Innovation Center in Germany is teaming up with rental car company Hertz to combine distributed renewable energy, electric vehicles, smart microgrid technology and rental cars. The program will be tested on a sharing agreement between the Ehningen campus and the Stuttgart Airport through Hertz’s online self-service renting system.

The Ehningen test is also in part sponsored by the Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks research consortium, known by the far more manageable (and apropos) acronym EDISON.

One of the key goals of the Denmark-based EDISON is to allow EV users to prioritize renewable energy when recharging their vehicles. The Ehningen smart grid will do just this: Allow drivers to use any available renewable energy before using any conventionally made sources. In short, this would allow you to pick and choose whether to charge your EV using a nearby wind farm or a coal-fired power plant.

Hertz’s involvement with this project is just another solid step in the right direction for the company, which has been instrumental in using its power to introduce various consumers to electric and hybrid vehicles through its airport business. In addition, the company is committing to working with technology companies to further its EV business. According to a recent press release:

“Hertz plans to increase its global EV presence by deploying vehicles in other countries in the coming months. Hertz Global EV will continue to leverage the company’s rental and car sharing locations as bases for vehicles and charging stations, and tap into its technology—including sophisticated fleet management tools and consumer-facing GPS systems, including Hertz NeverLost in the US—to help form an EV grid.”

Hertz isn’t the only company in this partnership that's been making industry waves. IBM has also been making huge strides in renewable energy and electric vehicle technology in the past several months, including developing a remarkably advanced lithium-air battery that could drive down the price of EVs.

A timely mix of high gas prices, sufficient electric vehicle infrastructure, strong policy support and enough inventory to meet demand.

While I continue to believe the US will reach this perfect storm in another 10 to 15 years, it's already begun in Hawaii.

According to the latest numbers, it looks like 1.2% of all vehicles sold in Hawaii last year were electric. This, compared to 0.1% on a national level.

Of course, this isn't particularly surprising. After all, residents of Hawaii are now shelling out about $4.50 a gallon for 87 octane. And for those looking to go electric, there's now one charging station for every 5,500 residents. This is actually a pretty big deal considering just how young the EV market is right now.

Hawaii has also been a leader in policy support. With a $4,500 tax credit, HOV access, and free parking at meters and parking garages, lawmakers in Hawaii have been quite aggressive in their efforts to get more EVs on the road. The Aloha State was even the first state to disallow condominium associations from blocking the installation of home charging stations.

As an added bonus, Hawaiian Electric Co. is now running a program that offers discounts on electricity rates when consumers charge their EVs at night. And most of that power comes from wind.

By necessity, Hawaii is quickly taking the lead in the US when it comes to transitioning to the new energy economy. And it is also by necessity that the rest of the nation will eventually do the same.

Hawaii currently has a 40% by 2030 renewable portfolio standard in place, and hopes to have 40,000 EVs on the road by 2020.