In wednesday night’s presidential debate, Republican nominee Mitt Romney argued that President Obama’s grants and tax breaks to renewable energy companies equalled 50 years of the tax breaks to gas companies.

“Now, I like green energy as well, but that’s about 50 years’ worth of what oil and gas receives,” Romney said. “You put $90 billion — like 50 years’ worth of breaks — into solar and wind, to Solyndra and Fisker and Tesla and Ener1. I mean, I had a friend who said, you don’t just pick the winners and losers; you pick the losers.”

Electric vehicles are inherently more efficient at turning energy into miles driven. Most people do not realize this, but electric drivetrains are much more efficient than internal combustion engine (ICE) drivetrains (about 75% vs 25%, in fact). In fact, there is little hope that ICE drivetrains could ever compete with electric drivetrains in terms of efficiency. Why are ICE drivetrains so inefficient? There are many reasons, including heat losses and inertial losses of various kinds, but ICE's are also thermodynamic systems with efficiencies limited by the heat cycle they operate under. Engineers have done amazing work in improving the efficiency of gas-powered cars, but they are up against fundamental limits. In contrast, a Nissan Leaf or a Chevy Volt can go about 40 miles on 11 Kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity, the energy equivalent of a third of a gallon of gasoline. And since the national average cost per KWH for electricity is only $0.11, this performance translates cost-wise into the equivalent of more than 120 miles per gallon.

Freep.com

Nissan is offering cheap leases and big discounts on the Leaf because of slow sales of the all-electric car.

This past Sunday, Solar and Wind living joined Plug In America, the Sierra Club, and the Electric Auto Association and others to celebrate a nationwide observance drawing global attention to the environmental, economic and other benefits of plug-in electric vehicles through simultaneous events staged around the country. This year 50+ cities were expected to participate.

Demonstrations against fracking - Huffington Post

PHILADELPHIA -- Demonstrators in the United States and other countries protested Saturday against the natural gas drilling process known as fracking that they say threatens public health and the environment.

Participants in the "Global Frackdown" campaign posted photos on social media websites showing mostly small groups.

But organizer Mark Schlosberg said Saturday afternoon he thought the protests were going well and he pointed to photos showing larger demonstrations in South Africa and France as well as higher turnouts in cities in California, Colorado and New York.

The EV Showcase that kicked off Electric Vehicle Days in Annapolis on Saturday, Sept. 15, was very successful with some 20 cars participating and a steady stream of interested people asking questions and talking to owners and dealers. EVs represented included an iThink City, two Mitsubishi iMiEvs, several Plug-In Priuses (two with solar power!), several Leafs and Volts, a Fisker Karma, an electric ride-on lawn mower, an electric motorcycle, electric bicycles, and even an electric skateboard.