It might get a lot of flack from Republicans and Truckers but the reality is that a lot of people are buying them.
The Prius went on sale more than a decade ago in Japan. But its popularity quickly is growing amid surging gas prices and environmental concerns. More than half of the total number of Priuses have been sold in North America.
Toyota’s Prius hits one million mark in sales - Phoenix Business Journal:
Cool story about XL Renewables new facility down by Casa Grande:
“The emergence of algae biomass as a renewable source of vegetable oils, proteins and carbohydrates is what our world needs today to lower the demand pressures on corn and soybeans,” said XL Renewables President and Chief Operating Officer Ben Cloud.
XL Renewables debuts new algae system for fuel - Phoenix Business Journal:
Fun article on the Sierra Club Blog about energy use in a Cyclist versus a Car.
The ethanol “alternative”? Well, not really. Instead of burning ethanol in engines, from a transportation standpoint were far better off ingesting the stuff. Driving 48 miles takes more than two gallons of ethanol, whereas only eight ounces of liquor, a mere half-pint of vodka, can fuel a cyclist for the same distance. Happy trails
I suggest having a read through the comments, always fun!
So I finally got off my lazy butt and got involved with the effort to make change happen in the country that I love. Last Saturday I went to Chandler Arizona and met with a bunch of really enthusiastic Obama Supporters and Canvassed Democratic Voters to sign up for Mail In Balloting. It was one of the more rewarding things I have done in many years and I am ready to do it again.
Some neat Statistics that I overheard:
-80% of voters registered for Mail In Ballots actually vote, compared to 40% or worse for regular registered voters
-When there is a record number of voters actually voting Democrats win the elections.
Here are some pictures, it was a lovely beautiful day:
From the Sierra Club:
Please ask the Governor to Veto HB2017!
Thank legislators who supported Clean Cars and Clean Air.
There is still one more vote to be counted relative to HB2017. That is the Governor’s. While she has been extremely supportive of the Clean Car Rule and very engaged in the Western Climate Initiative, I think it is important to let her know that there are lots of people out there who support a veto of HB2017.
Please take the time in the next couple of days to send Governor Napolitano a quick note asking her to please veto HB2017 Now: greenhouse emissions; regulations; fuel economy. This bill sends the message that Arizona does not want to do its part to clean up the air or reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. That is the wrong message to send.
If it becomes law, HB2017 will undercut “Clean Car” and clean air programs and significantly restrict Arizona’s ability to participate in regional efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions as well as other pollutants.
You can contact the Governor at azgov@az.gov or go to http://azgovernor.gov/contact.asp and type in your message. Call 602-542-4331 or outside the Phoenix area 1-800-253-0883. You can also contact the governor via mail at: The Honorable Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona, 1700 West Washington, 9th Floor, Phoenix, Arizona 85007 or by fax at 602-542-1381.
Also, please take the time to thank the following legislators, all of whom voted against HB2017 and all of whom recognize the importance of taking actions to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While the legislature is acting irresponsibly as a body, these individual legislators stood up and did the right thing. I have included their email addresses for your convenience. Please thank Representatives: Ableser eableser@azleg.gov, Bradley dbradley@azleg.gov, Brown jbrown@azleg.gov, Cajero Bedford ocajerobedford@azleg.gov, Chad Campbell chcampbell@azleg.gov, Chabin tchabin@azleg.gov, Farley sfarley@azleg.gov, Gallardo sgallardo@azleg.gov, Garcia mgarcia@azleg.gov, Hershberger phershberger@azleg.gov, Lopes plopes@azleg.gov, Lopez llopez@azleg.gov, Lujan dlujan@azleg.gov, Miranda bmiranda@azleg.gov, Pancrazi lpancrazi@azleg.gov, Prezelski tprezelski@azleg.gov, Schapira dschapira@azleg.gov, Sinema ksinema@azleg.gov, Thrasher jthrasher@azleg.gov, Tom atom@azleg.gov, Ulmer ulmer@azleg.gov, and Young-Wright nyoungwright@azleg.gov.
Representatives DeSimone and McGuire were absent. Everyone else voted for the bill.
If you would like to contact representatives who supported the bill and express your disappointment or dismay, you can find contact information for all legislators by clicking on HOUSE or paste this website into your browser http://www.azleg.gov/memberRoster.asp?Body=H or you can call (602) 926-4221 or outside the Phoenix area 1-800-352-8404 and just ask to be connected to House members’ offices.
Thank you for taking action on this important issue!
Sandy Bahr
Conservation Outreach Director
Sierra Club - Grand Canyon Chapter
202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phone (602) 253-8633
Fax (602) 258-6533
sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org
Besides not being able to get to work and setup a Budget for Arizona the State Legislators also want to repeal what little work they have done this year. Most notably is the Clean Car Program and the ability for Governor Napolitano to participate in the Western Climate Initiative. This is really an offense to all intelligent citizens in the State of Arizona. You are doing yourself and injustice by not calling your legislator and complaining about this. Use this site to find your Legislator and call them immediately to stop HB2017.
From the Sierra Club:
May 12, 2008
For Immediate Release: Contact: Sandy Bahr (602)253-8633
Diane E. Brown (602)318-2779 (c)
Arizona Legislature Seeks to Thwart Clean Air and Clean Cars Efforts
Today, the Arizona legislature passed HB2017 intending to put the Clean Cars Program on hold and also make it impossible for the Governor to effectively participate in the Western Climate Initiative. This effort comes less than a week after the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council voted in favor of the Clean Cars Program citing the legal authority for Arizona to proceed once the federal government acknowledges the right of the states on this issue. In passing the Clean Car Standards, Arizona joins 13 other states, over a third of the U.S. market.
The Clean Cars Program known for limiting health-damaging pollution from automobiles and paving the way for the widespread introduction of technologies such as hybrid-electric and fuel-cell vehicles, direct-injection engines, advanced transmissions, improved air conditioning systems, and other technologies with the potential to reduce pollution, previously received a unanimous recommendation from the Governor’s Climate Change Advisory Group (CCAG). The CCAG was comprised of diverse stakeholders including utility, business, public health, environmental, tribal and other leaders.
Aside from the stakeholder process, over 75 small businesses and organizations from across the state have stated their support for the Clean Cars Program in Arizona. In addition, thousands of Arizonans have written letters, signed postcards and sent emails to urge the advancement of the Clean Cars Program.
“There are only two options for a state: either the federal standard or the clean car standard. The clean car standard results in cleaner air and lower total transportation costs,” stated Jeff Schlegel, Arizona representative for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP). “The federal standard results in dirtier air and higher total transportation costs due to higher fuel use and gas prices. It is time to stop the delay tactics and move the clean car standard forward in Arizona.”
“Republicans for Environmental Protection does not believe that good policy is made when the sole intention is to thwart action by agencies previously given legislative authority to act,” said Tina Beattie, Arizona coordinator for Republicans for Environmental Protection. “We also are concerned greatly by removing Arizona from the Western Climate Initiative as Arizona’s economic interests need to represented within the region.”
“Through their vote to put the Clean Cars Program on hold, the legislature failed to see the warning signs of global warming in our state and ultimately took a wrong turn,” stated Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG). Brown pointed to the auto industry as leading the charge against the Clean Cars Program in Arizona and states across the country and added, “The auto industry needs to shift gears from spending money on lawyers and lobbyists trying to halt clean air improvements to putting cleaner vehicles on the roads to reduce the brown cloud, decrease asthma attacks and provide some relief to consumers at the gas pump.”
“If we leave it to the big utilities and the auto manufacturers, who brought this bill to the legislature, Arizona would just sit on its hands relative to cleaning up our air and reducing the emissions that contribute to global warming,” said Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “Fortunately, most Arizonans and the governor support a different strategy – our health, our economy, and the future of our children depend on us acting now to address these critical issues.”
So I have been using Wesabe for a week now and am really enjoying it. After getting over the initial paranoia of putting my bank info into a 3rd party service its been a veery eye opening experience. The final jump that got me over this part was reading their ‘Data Bill of Rights’, I am firmly based in the philosophy of The Cluetrain Manifesto and The Cathedral and the Bazaar and it seems this group has that focus down very well. Here is a video interview with the founders.
After uploading my bank content I then had to identify my purchases by 1) giving them a name that made sense and 2) tagging them with, well, tags. For #1 I am referring to how your bank gives you these awesomely unuseful names for your purchases, like: MC-Shell-Mazatlan-Hegel-1234Columbine-#$haha which means you used your Debit Card at the Shell down the street for gas. The cool thing is that once you name one purchase from that location all of them are updated! For #2 I am referring to the tag craze that web2.0 has brought upon us all. If you use del.icio.us or flickr then you know what these are and if you don’t its not a big deal. Basically you are putting some general names to your purchases so that Wesabe can group them together for you. So for a gas purchase I am gonna use - gas, car, transport. These tags are also applied to all purchases made at that location. If you want to apply specific tags to individual purchases you can do that for example - game, fellas - for the time you went to a baseball game with your buds and had to get gas.
This part takes some work but the way Wesabe is setup with all its super slick web2.0 scripting makes it really fast and kinda fun. I had some 200 entries updated in just 2-20 minute sessions. Once you have done all of this though you are in business as you will have to update occasionally as you make purchases at different places and maybe for the one time tags, but now you can start analyzing your spending and earnings in a nice and quick fashion. The more you use the tags effectively the better your analysis becomes. So be sure to put food on both restaurant and grocery purchases so that you can see how they lump together and separetly. You can then review all of the regular analysis - daily, weekly, monthly, etc. This is fairly normal budgeting stuff, but I like the format and the video game feel of the site, though the responsiveness can be a bit sluggish at times.
Getting back to the progressive stance of the site there is a recent post from one of their investors talking about the recent addition of a Tips section. This allows you to compare where you are making purchases and where other Wesabe users are making there’s to figure out if you are getting the goods or the shaft. “Great” you say “but there are tons of places to do this.” True and here is what the VC says:
The difference between user contributed reviews and actual user spending data is in some ways obvious and in other ways subtle, but profound. On the obvious side, the first thing Joshua Schachter, the founder of del.icio.us said to me, when I mentioned the idea was “how cool – you can’t spam it”. There are lots of reasons why someone might slant a review, but how many folks would buy more shoes just to promote a shoe store. The subtle distinction is more interesting. Someone could give a fancy, expensive restaurant a five star review after visiting only once. That review will be helpful to some, but others might find it a lot more useful to know that the anonymous reviewer of the five star restaurant ate there only once, but visits the unpretentious Italian place down the street five or six times a month.
and continues…
With the announcement of the new Wesabe Tips tab, the company has enabled consumers to anonymously share spending and satisfaction data, shifting forever the balance of power between merchants and consumers in favor of consumers. By waiting until they could offer the convenience of automatic uploading without compromising their users ownership of their data, they have reinforced their reputation as a trusted partner.
Wesabe also lets you take your data with you at anytime as stated in the Data Bill of Rights listed above. This means they are really interested in the Open Source Model of making things happen. As another blogger points out:
The key for Wesabe, is that they have turned that data over to consumers, and redress the balance of information power that has existed. Banks know everything about consumers, and not vice versa; Banks are paternalistic towards consumers, and that is in large part a result on unequal information and knowledge.
This is very cool stuff. Add to that the long standing Goals and Groups function and you have a very interactive and engaging tool to help people with their finances. Sure there are more powerful tools out there and of course any accountant worth her salt will tell you that Excel is all you need, but I am not a power user nor am I an accountant. I am not a checkbook balancer except in my head so Wesabe is a welcome tool for me and those like me, who are many. Oh and for those Mac users, like me, they got a Widget!
More Reading:
Good article at lifehacker -
-comments from co-founder Marc Hedlund, Wesabe
VC talking about wesabe new features -
-had link to site below
VC of wesabe talking about tips feature -
-Brad Burnham
Wired article from 2006 -
“Imagine Quicken in a web interface with the tagging powers of Flickr and you’ll pretty much have Wesabe pegged.”
Wesabe faq -
Super techy stuff you can do with Wesabe:
Something grabbing the API
Wesabe API with the Mac App Quicksilver
