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Driving Change July 3 2013
TOP STORY: What's The Fuss Over E15? Big oil says cars shouldn't run off of highly combustible liquid fuels...  For decades, the oil industry has done just about anything to protect its monopolistic control of the motor fuel marketplace. When the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 forced gasoline refiners to utilize 2% oxygen (by weight) to improve combustion efficiency and emissions, oil companies avoided the use of ethanol (the cheapest and safest way to add oxygen) with Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). A decade of MTBE use left tens of thousands of drinking water wells across the country polluted with a turpentine smelling, toxic gasoline additive; Exxon just settled this spring with New Hampshire for hundreds of millions of dollars for MTBE pollution.
MTBE's failures proved to be an opportunity for ethanol. Ten percent of nearly every gallon of gasoline in the United States is now ethanol. Today's ethanol is made from corn and Brazilian sugarcane, but a new generation of ethanol producers is just breaking through at commercial scale. Many of these advanced ethanol fuels reduce carbon emissions by 90 percent or more.
Don't know that much about ethanol? " Read More". Want to support ethanol and the development of cleaner fuels? There are two big things you can do:
1. Vote with your money. If your vehicle can use E15, and you support alternative fuels like ethanol, use them.
2. Contact those public officials who are most influential for and against Ethanol, and let them know your thoughts.
A quick list of influential senators as well as more information about ethanol fuels can be found by selecting "read more" below.
Read More.  | | GREEN LIVING Want to Take Steps Towards a Plastic-Free Life? Have You Kicked the Habit? Seriously, The Plastic Habit Has Got to Go.  As we have all come to understand, the plastic we use and throw away does not decompose- ever. It becomes smaller bits of plastic and ultimately floats on the ocean's surface or chokes out the life at the bottom of the sea floor.
Thirty two percent of seafloor trash is plastic, and, of that trash, most is single serving plastic containers. So what is the best thing we can do to prevent plastic from choking off sea life (which is essential for our existence) while also taking a huge bit out of fossil fuel consumption and combating climate change? Kick the habit! The plastic habit, that is.
Enter myplasticfreelife.com. Myplasticfreelife.com was started by Beth Terry as she sought to free her life from use of plastic and is a great resource to reduce the amount of plastic you use (and ultimately how much produced). Check out her free plastic-free guide for "Plastic-Free Grocery Shopping" or "Plastic-Free Eating and Drinking on the Go", read her blog, or buy her book to support her work.
The top two ways to kick the habit?
1. Carry reusable shopping bags.
2. Give up bottled water.
Check Out More. | | OIL SPILL UPDATE DOJ & Arkansas sue, as emails show Exxon misled public about oil spill contamination Oil industry supporters in Congress swear "The Pegasus Pipe...I mean, Deep water Horiz...I mean, XL Pipeline is 100% safe...Wait, what was the question again?"  by Chris Tackett
Near three Months ago Exxon Mobil's Pegasus pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of diluted bitumen or tar sands oil from Canada into a residential neighborhood, nearby marsh and eventually contaminating Lake Conway, a popular fishing spot. In the past week, the Department of Justice and State of Arkansas have filed a lawsuit against Exxon, while internal Exxon emails have revealed the oil company intentionally misled the public about the extent of contamination in Lake Conway.
As cleanup continues, some residents and local politicians feel everything is going okay, some going so far as to claim things are even better than before the spill. I suspect the sick and still displaced Mayflower residents would disagree. Details about these and more updates below.
Get Mad | |
BIKE PROJECTS California Bicycle Coalition Requests Support for a Bikeways campaign. Give a little green; Get a little greener.  We recently got great news on our friends at the Better Bikeways campaign in California:
To comply with AB 819, our successful bill last year to encourage new bikeway designs, Caltrans is proposing to permit local agencies to build protected bikeways without needing Caltrans approval.
We are so close to victory, but we need your help for the next step. Despite their new freedom, local traffic engineers will not immediately take advantage of it. They'll need our encouragement and advice regarding design and liability. This is a winnable campaign, but we need your help.
A donation will help us to mail information packets to the mayors of the 50 largest cities in California and to bicycle coordinators and key Supervisors and City Councillors throughout California. We will follow up with phone calls and be available for consultation. We'll address every concern a local leader may have so that your community will soon see protected bikeways, green lanes, and other modern bikeway infrastructure!
This on-the-ground education and advocacy is essential to the success of our campaign. Caltrans won't do it, so we have to. Please support our Better Bikeways campaign with a donation today. Every donation is valuable.
We are on the verge of a new era of bikeways that will help us meet our goal of tripling cycling in California by 2020. For better health, fewer tragic crashes, and a more prosperous California, help us enable more bicycling. Support CalBike today, and we'll see a new era of betterbikeways tomorrow.
Learn More or Donate | | Likes on Facebook: A New Source of Transportation Funding?  By Carl Larson
Want to see some street improvements in your neighborhood? It might be worth it to think out of the box. That's what one East Portland, OR Neighborhood Association is doing in an effort to improve a crossing of the Springwater Corridor Trail in their neighborhood.
Read More | | | | Bicycle Transportation Alliance releases 'blueprint' for new bike projects in Portland area Will Portland, and the US develop model transportation systems for bikes? By Joseph Rose, The Oregonian
An ambitious new "blueprint" from the Northwest's largest bike-advocacy group calls for separated tracks to make big, busy streets safer for bicyclists and creating a network of low-traffic neighborhood greenways in Washington County. The Portland-based Bicycle Transportation Alliance's "Building Our Future: A Blueprint for World-Class Bicycling" recommends 16 projects, a smaller number than a wish list released by the organization in 2005.
Read More. | |
 Bike To Work Week Video Contest WINNERS! We are excited to announce the first of two winners for the Bike To Work Week "Video Contest!!" BWC Wants to be sure everyone knows, advocacy pays off (and ultimately with much better gifts than our cool prizes)  Watch Their Video
Our first winner, or winners rather, is a group of friends from San Diego California, Leylla Badeanlou, Khalisa Bolling, and Brian Kranson who produce beautiful videos of their adventures with hopes to inspire others to seek adventure themselves. These guys are all working professionals who advocate for healthy living and for biking as a transportation way of life.
Watch Their Video
The award for "Bold, Not Cold, Bike Advocacy" and "Being Hip on Your Bike Trip", for dedication to cycling as a transportation lifestyle and for bringing professional talents into their advocacy work, we are happy to award BWC memberships to cover Leylla, Kahlisa, and Brian as they cycle around town and across the states with their stylish and bike-attachable Po Campo hand bag. Congratulations, and we hope you continue to share your passion and love for adventuring and cycling for many years to come.
Learn More About Our First Winners | | | Have a comment, rant, or suggestion? Email us! | | |
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