By Clint Williams
Green Right Now

With highway fuel economy of 30 mpg, the Suzuki SX4 certainly conserves gasoline. And, more importantly these days, this compact sedan conserves cash. A comfortably well-equipped SX4 - complete with standard touch-screen navigation system - rolls off the dealer lot for less than $16,000. That makes it financially competitive in its class, and as economical as most cars featured in our “30(cars) Over 30(mpg)” gallery.

Suzuki, best known in the United States for making motorcycles, this fall added a Garmin navigation unit as standard equipment to both the four-door SX4 Sport and the five-door SX4 Crossover. The gizmo comes on top of an already impressive list of standard equipment, considering the price, that includes air conditioning, power windows, doors and locks, anti-lock brakes and an array of airbags that includes side curtain airbags. [Read more →]

By John DeFore
Green Right Now

Everyone knows that shade from the sun keeps you cooler, but a new study has quantified the benefit in a way homeowners might want to note. The right kind of shade, it turns out, can easily shave ten percent off your summertime electric bill.

David Laband, a professor in Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, studied 160 area houses between May and September — quantifying the amount of shade trees cast on each and comparing their power usage. Those with a sizable amount of what he called “heavy shade” had bills over ten percent lower than those with no shade at all. (11.4%, to be exact, which in this study amounted to between $31 and $33 per month in savings.) [Read more →]

By John DeFore

For everyone puzzled at recent energy-independence speeches that seem to focus as much on building new electric lines as on solar research or wind power, a new report helps make one inconvenient truth clear: Without new infrastructure, switching to non-carbon power could make our electric system far less reliable than it is today.

The report was compiled by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a self-regulatory organization focused in part on ensuring that power transmission stays blackout-free from coast to coast.

It solicited input from the companies it oversees on how new climate change initiatives could affect the bulk transfer of electricity, and came to a few conclusions, the broadest of which was this: “A decision on national climate change policy is needed in the U.S. to provide regulatory certainty and support for industry action. Delay on this important policy is negatively impacting both reliability and climate objectives.” [Read more →]