Google and PG&E Unveil Next Generation Hybrids

The philanthropic arm of Google, Google.org, and Pacific Gas & Electric, a northern California utility, have worked together on a project that allows certain hybrids to get up to 75 miles per gallon. The project allows for the cars to be plugged into the energy grid when they are not in use. A wireless signal is sent to the car at different points to see how charged it is the time. If the grid needs more energy, it take some from the hybrid. If not, the hybrid will charge.

Such a technology is not commercialized at this point due to the extra battery needed for the energy storage from the grid not being durable enough at this point.

You can also read about it at the website for RechargeIT, which is tied in with Google.org.

Industry Behind Proposed Limit on Emissions

As mentioned in the second article I posted on Wednesday, January 17 (scroll past Wal-Mart post), there is some electric industry executives behind a proposal for Congress to cap CO2 emissions. Presumably, these are executives of companies who are already below whatever cap would be proposed and, thus, would benefit by trading their emission credits to companies who would not be under the limit.

Today, more information has surfaced about this topic. A group calling themselves "United States Climate Action Partnership" is composed of General Electric, DuPont, Alcoa, Caterpillar, Duke Energy in North Carolina, PG&E in California, the FPL Group in Florida, and PNM Resources in New Mexico. The group plans on making a formal announcement of their ideas and intentions on Monday prior to when President Bush will make this year's State of the Union speech. As alluded to above, their announcement will give details on a cap-and-trade system in which companies who do emit below the allowed cap can trade their credits to those companies who exceed the limit.