Carbon Offset

First-of-its-kind regional program could give states another tool to manage emissions.

California could add thousands of dollars in incentives for electric cars

Lyft on Thursday announced a multimillion-dollar investment to counterbalance the pollution produced by its entire fleet of ride-sharing vehicles by immediately purchasing carbon offsets verified by a third party. The plan to become fully carbon-neutral, it says, makes Lyft one of the top voluntary purchasers of carbon offsets in the world.

LG Chem says it has won a bid to supply batteries for Audi. LG says the deal, worth "hundreds of millions of dollars," has them providing batteries for plug-in hybrid and micro hybrid electric vehicles. The group says it also expects to be picked for battery deals for Volkswagen Group in the future. John Beltz Snyder

Ford will be building Michigan's largest solar array at its Dearborn headquarters. With funding from DTE Energy, the solar carport will provide covered parking, as well 30 charging stations for electric vehicles. The array is expected to generate 1.13 million kWh per year for Ford's operations, and offset 794 metric tons of carbon emissions. Read more in the press release John Beltz Snyder

A Toyota subsidiary is preparing to enter a Toyota Land Cruiser for a very long off-road ride while emitting 60 percent less carbon dioxide than its regular diesel competitors. Toyota Auto Body Co. has enrolled a team into the 2014 Dakar Rally that will race a biodiesel-fueled Land Cruiser 200 with fuel made from used cooking oil.

Getting drivers to change their behavioral patterns is quite difficult, but the fuel economy payoff can be huge. Consumer Reports has been informing passenger car drivers about the consequences of hitting the gas pedal, and now the Volvo Group is participating in a project to improve commercial Jon LeSage

The average fuel economy of new cars sold in the US is going back up after dropping for a couple of months. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) calculated a 24.8 mpg average for new light-duty vehicles sold in the US during November 2013. That's not a

Plug-in electric vehicles appear to be more important to Norwegians than they are to people anywhere else in the world. While the actual EV sales numbers lag far behind markets like the United States, the per capita comparison is surprising. In the Scandinavian country last month, about 12 percent of all new vehicle sales were made up of electric vehicles.

A visit to Ecoful Town in Toyota City, Japan is misleading; checking out the exhibits on the three-acre parcel in the center of Aichi Prefecture makes one think he's learning what kinds of lives homeowners and citizens might experience in some future city not that different from our own. But Ecoful Town is more than a demonstration of what's possible – it's an overview of what's happening right now with the intention of making the future better, and it's happening all over Toyota City.

Algae-derived biofuel burns cleaner than petroleum fuels and is often less resource-intensive than first-generation biofuels. That's the conclusion the Algae Biomass Organization (ABO) reaches from the first-ever study that analyzed results from an existing algae-to-energy demonstration scale farm.

Would a global vehicle emission standard make sense? After all, as Automotive News writer Richard Truett points out, "Clean air is clean air no matter what continent it blows over." But, while attending a recent automotive industry conference in Traverse City, MI, Truett heard Chris Gundler, the director of the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, respond to a question about the US and European Union adopting uniform emissions s

An ever-increasing number of fuel efficient vehicles combined with changes in driving habits have contributed to reduced petroleum consumption in recent years in both North America and Europe. Despite this, global petroleum consumption is on the rise, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Global consumption of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil and other petroleum products reached a record high 8

John DeCicco is starting to make a name for himself speaking out against green cars. In June, he said electric vehicles won't help much unless the energy well they tap is cleaned up. He's now back with an article in a Yale University publication called Environment 360 that we're guessing some people won't like very much. DeCicco says that government subsidies and mandates,

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is continuing to show support for next-gen fuel cell systems. In June, DOE rolled out $9 million in grants to speed up the technology, and this month, an announcement was made that $4.5 will be invested in two projects focused on advanced fuel cell membranes. Minnesota based-3M will receive $3 million and the Colorado School of Mines will receive $1.5 mi

Audi has opened the doors to its new power-to-gas facility, which will make what the automaker calls E-gas, in Werlte, Germany. The plant produces hydrogen and synthetic methane and these clean fuels come from renewable energy, water and carbon dioxide. Audi says it's the first automaker to "develop a cha

Plug-in electric vehicles are heading for another global market, South Africa, but it may take a while. Eskom, a South African electricity public utility company, told the legislature it will conduct a three-year study to see if the local power grid can handle a bunch of plug-in cars.

Your Monday green-car buzzkill is brought to you buy University of Michigan research professor John DeCicco, who says more electric vehicles won't do much to slow global warming if energy-production methods aren't addressed.