At events such as the recent EV Roadmap 4 conference in Portland, panelists quibble about when plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) will be ready for mass adoption, and how best to roll out the charging infrastructure. But to understand why the PEV movement is here to stay, it only takes two words: energy security.

The idea of reducing dependence on foreign oil has been a political stalking horse for at least the past decade. But its impact is starkly demonstrated in Oil Shockwave, a war game-like simulation that enlists former cabinet members and other top-ranked officials to devise strategies to react to disruptions in the global oil market. Sam Ori of the Electrification Coalition presented an abbreviated version of Oil Shockwave to the attendees of EV Roadmap. The exercise, which explores a reduction in the flow of oil that causes the cost of to spike near $200 a barrel, was created by the group Securing America’s Future Energy and has been played out for the past 5 years at meetings of policymakers and business executives.

In the current scenario, a terrorist attack on a major fuel processing plant in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, slows global oil production, and Venezuela and Iran decide to exacerbate the situation for the US and other dependent nations by simultaneously reducing their production. None of the responses devised by the big brains during an energy summit this summer, which included political pressure on Saudi Arabia or releasing some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, had a tangible impact on the global price of crude oil. The market power of OPEC, Ori explained, outweighs even the military might of the United States and exposes the country to a further potential economic crisis.

The demonstration did not detail the local impacts of the near doubling of the cost of a tank of gas and reduced availability, but it’s safe to assume that owners of conventional cars would feel the sting much more than those who plug in for power. In places like Hawaii, which has just a six-day supply of oil on hand, a temporary disruption of the oil supply would be devastating since the fossil fuel is used for both power generation and transportation.

The Oil Shockwave demonstration leads to the inevitable conclusion that the only way to prepare the country for this sort of event is to reduce our dependency on oil. Since transportation accounts for the majority of the oil consumption, electrifying the vehicle fleet is an effective means of doing so.

This sobering assessment clarifies why the federal government has dedicated thousands of hours and billions of dollars on developing alternatives. That PEVs today are in some cases cheaper to operate than petroleum powered cars and can provide environmental benefits that are significant but secondary side-effects.

Government leaders from China to Canada have recognized this risk and are using a combination of incentives and mandates to ignite PEV demand. In a free market economy, though, it’s ultimately up to the auto industry to develop vehicles that are worthy of consideration, and for consumers to buy the vehicles. The conference also included a focus group of average consumers who were mostly clueless about PEVs. The lack of understanding made it clear that the industry has made little progress in outlining the benefits to consumers of the convenience and fun of driving a PEV as average consumers – much less in underlining the national security risk of not shifting to electric vehicles.

Article by John Gartner, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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(Reuters) – Average carbon dioxide emissions from new cars sold in the European Union dropped by 5 percent last year, the biggest annual fall ever recorded, European climate chief Connie Hedegaard said on Wednesday.

The EU, home to 500 million people, has set a target for cutting average emissions from new cars to 130 grams of CO2 per km by 2015.

“The latest data shows … that the car industry is on track to achieve the 2015 target and most likely several major manufacturers will be able to do so well in advance,” said Hedegaard, the EU commissioner in charge of climate action.

Emissions dropped due to a combination of the economic crisis, the scrappage schemes that some governments introduced to boost buying of new cars and a shift in buying patterns to favor greener vehicles, she added in a statement.

The findings mirror a report last week by green transport campaign group T&E, which also found Japanese carmakers making the fastest progress in the quest to hit the EU targets.

T&E analyzed official EU data to show Toyota Motor Co had reduced the average carbon dioxide from its cars by 10 percent in 2009, more than five times the pace achieved last year by the previous leader, Germany’s BMW.

Suzuki Motor Corp made the second biggest emissions cuts last year at 9.1 percent, followed by Mazda Motor Corp with 5.4 percent.

Toyota’s average CO2 emissions in 2009 were 132 grams per km, putting it alongside Peugeot Citroen and Fiat SpA as one of the carmakers best-placed for complying with the EU’s 2015 goal.

Article by Pete Harrison, edited by Rex Merrifield and David Holmes; appearing courtesy Reuters.

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Renewable energy and energy efficiency are key to solving crises in the economy, climate and security, said Al Gore on Friday (videos below).

The former vice president lauded fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Barack Obama for efforts including an economic stimulus package with a significant renewable energy component.

“One way or another the reductions in emissions are about to accelerate,” said Gore at the conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Madison, Wis. “What is important, directly or indirectly, is that we put a price on carbon.”

He expressed hope that the U.S. Senate will pass a  bill similar to that of the House, even in advance of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. “There is much more bipartisan dialogue behind the scenes than is publicly visible,” he added.

Gore warned that failure to pass a strong international treaty at Copenhagen would be “catastrophic.”

Check out the footage below for more of Gore’s thoughts about how technology and business leaders can innovate and accelerate the adoption of a clean energy economy.

[photo and video credit: Elsa Wenzel]

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As a former resident of Florida (1999-2002…Go Seminoles) your author can assure you, the state is in need of high speed rail. The vast state makes travel times by car irritatingly long. The most extreme example is the drive from Pensacola to Key West. Distance of that journey is 828 miles, clocking in at over 13 hours. From anywhere in the panhandle to south Florida is an all day affair behind the wheel.

Drivers along the highways (especially 10) are under the close eye of the Highway Patrol and must keep the pace under 75 miles per hour for hours and hours and hours. Out of all the HSR corridors, Florida should have the most urgent need for speed. A 220 mph train would be the optimal mode of transit from Tallahassee all the way down to Miami. The length of that journey (480 miles) gives passenger rail a time advantage over cars and planes. Any trip less than 500 miles gives trains the upper hand concerning travel times.

All of Florida’s major cities are in that crucial 500 mile range along the I-75 corridor or coast. From Jacksonville to Miami, virtually the entire length of the state, the distance is 344 miles. With this in mind, the architect of the modern Florida HSR Corridor, C.C “Doc” Dockery, sought to bring this infrastructure to the state. This effort ran headlong into the Bush family. For some reason, Governor Jeb Bush was diametrically opposed to HSR in Florida and did everything in his power to kill passenger rail in the Sunshine State (*FYI – House of Bush, House of Saud offers some rather salient points and can be found on Amazon.com here).

Florida’s population has nearly doubled since 1980 from over 9 million people to over 18 million in 2008. This constant influx of people shaped the Floridian economy into what has been described as a giant Ponzi scheme. The state is dependent on new arrivals and investment to keep the economy running. Developers built condos, malls and golf courses, but neglected to build sufficient transport infrastructure to link what they had made.

The economic crisis bit Florida in a number of ways. The housing bubble was the most significant. Also high on the list of ills is that expensive fuel hit Floridians very hard because the only way to get around the peninsula is by car. It does not matter if you are a student going to see your parents on the weekend or a retiree that wants to hit the links, without a car you are going nowhere. This dependence is unhealthy and other transport options need to be made available.

The good news is that the Bushes are out of their respective offices. Republican Governor Charlie Crist is a tacit supporter of the plan, which by GOP standards is a ringing endorsement. Governor Crist is set for a Senate run in 2010 so it may be up to a new Governor to get momentum for the project on the state level. For this project, the federal government might need to step in and get things rolling.

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CleanTechies blogger Nat Kreamer (COO and co-founder of SunRun) had some big news this morning for us.  Hopefully the announcement of $105M in loan financing for SunRun customers by U.S. Bancorp is a sign of credit houses freeing up some of the liquidity that the department of treasury has passed along to them.

This is big news because while it indicates some thawing of the credit freeze, it also indicates some serious innovation.  This kind of financing is as sexy as any of the new technologies you see coming out of Silicon Valley.

“Financial engineering” is an ugly word these days, but it takes some serious work to get something like these loans on the board: “This is a specialty asset class,”  Nat says. “It’s not like getting a home loan, it takes real expertise.”

SunRun also added David Buzby, the chairman of SunEdison, to its board. SunRun’s moving fast, and this is a serious partnership for a large scale PPA given that SunRun has cracked the code on mitigating operation and maintenance (O&M) costs for many small systems. Learning from their success would be extremely valuable for SunEdison given that their systems are many times bigger than the typical residential system SunRun manages.

So, in case you were wondering why Nat was quiet after my question on his blog article last week… it was because he was busy.  Great work SunRun – fair wind and following seas!

Full Press Release available here.

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