Gary Yeomans Ford LINCOLN

Filed under: Etc., South/Latin America

Quick, name the country certified by OPEC as number one in national oil reserves. Saudi Arabia? No. Canada? Nope. Venezuela? Bing!

After redefining as extra-heavy crude a field previously classified as tar, OPEC certified the South American nation of Venezuela as the controller of the world's grandest oil reserves. The Faja field is estimated to contain 220 billion barrels of crude, rocketing Venezuela's reserves to 297 billion barrels - close to 20 percent of the world's oil.

One man, Rafael Ramirez, is in charge of all that crude and, as such, should probably be considered one of the most powerful figures in the world. As the nation's minister of energy, Ramirez credits Venezuela's world-leading oil reserve status to president Hugo Chavez, saying:

If President Chavez had not arrived to power, we would be out of Opec, the price of oil would have not recovered, and Venezuelan oil would be in the hands of privates.

At the ripe young age of 48, Ramirez is expected to hold his position as minister of energy for decades to come. Now you can say you knew him when.

Did you know Venezuela has the most oil? Meet the man in charge of it originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During one of our more recent Thread of the Day posts, we asked what lies people have told you about their cars, and several forum posters sounded off on all the ridiculous things some have claimed their cars can achieve. Whether some may have lied about horsepower, mpgs, or their 0-60 time, its clear nobody [...]

Heavy duty pickups are known for their ability to haul things, not necessarily themselves. Not this 2011 Ford F-250 Super Duty though. This 6.7-liter turbodiesel V-8 F-250 at the hands of Hajek Motorsports has just set three production diesel truck land speed records at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats, topping out at an astonishing 182 [...]

Ford and Toyota announced today that theyll bring their respective talentsâ??making pickup trucks and hybrid carsâ??together, collaborating on a way to make their SUVs and light trucks more fuel efficient in the coming years. The move comes on the heels of recent changes to Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which now say that automakers will [...]

For the first time ever, the federal government has released special mandates for commercial truck fuel economy and emissions requirements.

Filed under: Ethanol, Flex-Fuel, MPG, Ford, Europe/EU

Continue reading Ford adds E85 Flexifuel to Focus lineup in Europe

Ford adds E85 Flexifuel to Focus lineup in Europe originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Ford

... help Detroit Edison advance the use of electric vehicles in a couple of ways. First, we will learn firsthand how these vehicles perform in day-to-day field operations... Second, they will help us learn more about how the use of electric vehicles by consumers and businesses will impact the electrical system and what utilities need to do to support adoption of these vehicles.

Continue reading Ford electrifies DTE Energy with four Transit Connect Electric vans

Ford electrifies DTE Energy with four Transit Connect Electric vans originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LINCOLN debuted this restored 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster today at The Lodge, Pebble Beach in Monterey County, Calif. This custom roadster, based on a 1934 Ford, was Edsel Fords one-off vehicle that he personally commissisioned Fordâ??s chief designer E.T. Gregoire to style and build. After its showing this weekend, it will be returned to [...]

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Solar

What do you need to generate a lot of electricity from photoelectric solar cells? A lot of surface area. What is a lot of the surface of the United States covered in? Roads. Put those two ideas together, and the idea of turning the nation's highways into solar farms doesn't sound too odd, does it? Well, maybe it doesn't until you consider that you're talking about taking electronics - electronics that are typically somewhat delicate and rather expensive - and purposely putting them on the ground where heavy vehicles will zoom over them at high speed. Ouch.

Replacing crushed stone and tar with LEDs and capacitors seems so unlikely that when Solar Roadways was awarded $100,000 to construct a small, 12' by 12' prototype system in 2009, infrastructure blog The Infrastructionist gave the effort its "Dubious Green Scheme" award and labeled Solar Roadways not just "harebrained" but "totally batshit crazy."

As it turns out, that initial panel impressed the Department of Transportation enough that Solar Roadways has now been given $750,000 to take it to the next step: a solar parking lot. Constructed out of multiple 12' x 12' panels, the smart parking lot will do more than the asphalt alternative. It will warm itself in cold weather to melt away snow and ice. A layer of embedded LEDs can be used create traffic warnings or crosswalks. Electricity leftover from those tasks could be used to charge electric vehicles or routed into the power grid. The electrical components will be embedded between layers of hardened, textured glass - this may sound fragile, but is already tough enough that some areas use the material for sidewalks.

Parking lots, driveways, and eventually highways are all targets for the panels. If the nation's system of interstate highways was surfaced with Solar Roadways panels, the results would be more than three times the amount of electricity currently consumed. Of course, at $100,000 per 12', costs would need to come down significant bit before that could happen.

And if you're wondering who gets this first super-smart parking lot the answer is... Scott Brusaw, the CEO of Solar Roadways. Now who's crazy?

Solar Roadways gets $750,000 to create solar parking lot originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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