 |  The Honda Insight is the most fuel-efficient car sold in the United States.
Credit: Honda | The 2005 models are arriving at car dealerships around the United States, and to help consumers make an informed choice, DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have released the 2005 Fuel Economy Guide. The Fuel Economy Guide lists estimated miles per gallon (mpg) while driving in the city and on the highway for all cars and light trucks sold in the United States. It also lists an estimated annual fuel cost for each vehicle, and includes special sections on hybrid-electric and alternative-fuel vehicles. The Fuel Economy Guide Web site includes fuel economy data back to 1978, allows head-to-head comparisons of vehicles, and provides crash test and emissions data. The Web site even provides information on electric and clean-fuel vehicle tax incentives, which were extended by the "Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004," signed by President Bush on October 4th. The site also includes a downloadable version of the 24-page Fuel Economy Guide. See the Fuel Economy Guide Web site. The Honda Insight continues to lead the pack in terms of fuel economy, with its manual-shift version achieving 61 mpg in the city and 66 mpg on the highway. Debuting in 12th place in overall mileage is the two-wheel-drive version of the Ford Escape Hybrid, which leads the sport-utility vehicle (SUV) category by achieving 36 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway. See the DOE press release and the EPA's 5-year list of vehicles with the highest and lowest fuel economy. DOE announced last week awards of more than $7 million for two Pennsylvania-based companies to investigate new technologies for hydrogen production and transport. Media and Process Technology Inc. of Pittsburgh will receive nearly $2.6 million over three years to develop carbon molecular sieve technology that produces and purifies hydrogen in a single step. The hydrogen is produced via the water-gas shift reaction, in which steam and carbon monoxide react to form carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The process would be used to generate hydrogen from the mixture of gases created by gasifying biomass, natural gas, coal, or other organic materials. The company will work on the project with Johnson Matthey Catalyst, ChevronTexaco, and the University of Southern California. Air Products and Chemicals Inc. of Allentown will develop a process that uses a low-volatility fluid to absorb hydrogen, allowing it to be stored and transported using today's liquid fuel infrastructure. The process is reversible, allowing the hydrogen to be regenerated from the liquid at the delivery point. To achieve that feat, Air Products and its partners—United Technology Research Center and the Energy Institute at Penn State University—are using "novel, highly selective" catalyts. DOE expects to award nearly $4.7 million to the project over its four-year duration. The projects are part of a larger $9.4 million award announced by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. See the DOE press release. With President Bush's signing last week of the "Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004," which extends the wind energy production tax credit until the end of 2005, a number of wind power projects are now moving ahead in the United States. PPM Energy announced last week that it will start building new wind facilities in two states: the 75-megawatt Klondike II wind project in Sherman County, Oregon, and the 100-megawatt Trimont Wind project in southwestern Minnesota. Both projects are fully permitted and are expected to begin operation in 2005, at a capital investment of about $200 million. PPM Energy also claims to have another 200 megawatts of wind power that are "at late-stage development with further announcements expected shortly." See the PPM Energy press release. Although U.S. wind projects are now regaining their momentum, Canada is making major strides toward building its wind energy capacity. Last week, Hydro-Quebec Distribution awarded eight wind energy projects totaling 990 megawatts to two companies: Cartier Wind Energy Inc. and Northland Power Inc. The six projects range from 58.5 megawatts to 211.5 megawatts and are expected to cost about $1.5 billion. The wind projects will go into service between 2006 and 2012 and will be a boon to GE Energy, since it is providing its 1.5-megawatt wind turbines for all of the projects. GE Energy has already installed 2,500 of the turbines worldwide. See the press releases from Hydro Quebec and GE Energy. A massive wind power project in western Canada is also moving forward, as Sea Breeze Power Corp. has been issued an environmental permit for its 450-megawatt Knob Hill Wind Farm, to be located on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. The facility is expected to cost about $550 million. See the Sea Breeze Power press release and Knob Hill project Web page. New York Governor George E. Pataki announced last week that the state is awarding $1.2 million to seven renewable energy projects. Most of the funds will go toward six projects to assess potential wind power development throughout the state: in Lackawanna, near the Lake Erie shore just south of Buffalo; in Batavia, midway between Buffalo and Rochester; in Cold Spring, due west of Salamanca, which is about 60 miles south of Buffalo; in the town of Warren in Herkimer County, near the Adirondack Mountains; in Clinton, Fulton, and Saratoga Counties, near Adirondack Park; and in Liberty, near the Catskill Mountains. The seventh project will investigate a commercial-scale biomass gasification plant fueled by local renewable fuels and producing both heat and power. See the governor's press release. The governor announced the awards at the Ninth Annual National Green Power Marketing Conference, held last week in Albany. Video of the governor's announcement and other presentations from the conference are available online from NewYorkAdmin.com, which also offers Webcasts of the state's Public Service Commission meetings. Governor Pataki also signed a law in mid-September that allows owners of small wind turbines to connect the electrical grid and sell power back to the utility through a process known as "net metering." The bill applies to residential wind turbines up to 25 kilowatts in generating capacity, and farm-based wind turbines able to generate up to 125 kilowatts. See the bill, S. 4890. The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) announced last week that it is offering rebates on solar power systems to cut in half the cost of installing them. The CCEF has $1.8 million available for solar power rebates, which can go as high as $25,000 per home. See the October 4th press release from the CCEF. CCEF is also funding Proton Energy Systems, Inc. to design and build a 5-kilowatt regenerative fuel cell for a telecommunications site in southwestern Connecticut, where it will be operated as a demonstration project for two years. Regenerative fuel cells store energy from the power grid by converting electricity into hydrogen, then convert that hydrogen back into electricity to provide emergency power when the electrical grid is unavailable. See the press release from Proton Energy's parent company, Distributed Energy Systems Corporation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing new program rules for administering its Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program, and is requesting public comments. The program was created as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, and the USDA has already committed to $45 million in grants to farmers, ranchers, and rural businesses through the program. The proposed rule formalizes the program guidelines for receiving and reviewing future grant applications, and also establishes a new process for offering loans and loan guarantees. The proposed rule change was published in the Federal Register on October 5th, and public comment will be accepted for 30 days after its publication. See the announcement and the proposed rule on the USDA Rural Development office Web site. | 
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