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The symbiosis between cars and chemically-produced biofuels is growing closer as Ford Motor Company and DOW Chemical Company announced plans yesterday to hold a National Convention to discuss the future of manufacturing, technology, energy and the environment.

Anyone not living under a rock in a remote, sandy location for the last five years has seen the prodigious rise to prominence of eco-labels at their local grocery store. You may not pay these little badges much attention, or if you do, you may be wondering what the heck they mean.

Texas biodiesel producer GreenHunter Energy says that hurricane damage to its gulf coast refinery — currently the largest in the nation — will take it out of production for 6 to 8 weeks.

After several unofficial debuts of the ravenously anticipated Volt, GM has officially taken the wraps off the final Volt production car.

It was a weird and improbable shotgun wedding of genetic material — one conducted by your drunk uncle Larry in a brothel on the outskirts of Las Vegas. One in which researchers successfully combined enzymes from a bacteria that normally resides in a cow’s gut with the genes of the leaves and stalk of a corn plant. And now it's commercialized.

Apparently, Chrysler has been demonstrating plug-in hybrids to select dealers around the US that have “at least” a 300 mile range and can go from 0-60 in “less than” 4 seconds.

Last month some Car & Driver spy photos indicated that Honda would be building a hybrid-only car that looked almost exactly like the Prius. Today, Honda confirmed that those spy photos were genuine. At a starting price of $18,500, the clone aspect may not matter.

Why is it that biofuels are becoming the ire of green activists while petroleum appears to be getting a free pass? Groups that should be overjoyed at the prospect of destroying our oil addiction are the same ones that appear to be doing Big Oil’s bidding. What gives?

Ford says the next generation of their Ecoboost engine technology, codenamed Bobcat, will provide 30% more fuel efficiency than a traditional gasoline combustion engine by directly injecting ethanol into the gas/air mixture prior to detonation.

Solazyme’s novel biofuel production method involves growing algae in the absence of light. In nature, algae use light to make sugar and then make oil from that sugar. Solazyme skips the light part and just feeds their algae sugar to get them to make oil.

The American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) has announced their endorsement of Barack Obama for President, marking the first 2008 presidential endorsement by a major biofuels trade association, and only the second time in the ACGA’s twenty-one year history that they have ever endorsed any presidential candidate.

New system makes biodiesel in mere seconds, creates a product that costs half the price, produces no waste, and can use any animal fat or vegetable oil as a feedstock.

The Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance is a non-profit organization created to promote sustainable biodiesel practices, and now they want your input on what those sustainable practices and standards should be by releasing a document for public comment and review.

Japan’s Suzuki Motor Company will begin selling cars that run completely on 100% ethanol in the US and Brazil by 2010, marking a huge development in ethanol-powered vehicles, and a huge shift for Suzuki

If scientists at Ames National Laboratory are successful in perfecting a process called gasification, crops, agricultural waste, lawn clippings, raked leaves, sewage sludge and garbage could all be turned into ultra-cheap ethanol using the same efficient process, in the same facility, under one roof.

Starting later this year, Advanced Mechanical Products (AMP), a company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, will take your pre-existing or newly purchased Saturn Sky and convert it to an electric car.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed an easy, efficient and inexpensive method for transforming raw plant material directly into a fuel called furfural without any additional acid processing or fermentation. Furfural can be substituted for diesel.

Rotting, leftover fryer grease has turned into gold in the race to our energy future — and thieves have taken notice.

It seems that everybody and their brothers are ethanol experts these days. The truth of the matter is that cellulosic ethanol will be made from non-food sources that can be grown on marginal land or is already a waste byproduct of society.

It seems that BP is trying to make up for lost time — the worldwide oil giant has invested $90 million in cellulosic ethanol company, Verenium.

Imagine a grass crop, grown on marginal, non-food bearing land without pesticides or much fertilizer, that, when harvested, produces an oil that needs almost no processing to be substituted for diesel fuel.

According to a survey commissioned by Cars.com during July, about 50% of US consumers don’t believe that Obama or McCain has a magic rabbit up their sleeve that will lower prices at the pump any time soon

Our transportation portfolio is in desperate need of diversification because right now it’s downright pathetic.

In its latest round of funding, Aptera has raised more than $24 million to begin production of both its Typ-1 electric car and Typ-1 plug-in hybrid.

In a slew of announcements this week, a picture of what the future of plug-in vehicle charging might look like is starting to emerge.

The current rate at which biofuels are falling out of favor is largely founded on biased ideologies, which have been shaped by widespread political and corporate agenda-pushing from all sides of the fence.

While the kinks are worked out, Tesla is starting to move Roadsters off the production line slowly. 27 Roadsters are currently in various stages of assembly, and the company hopes to reach a monthly production rate of 100 cars by this December.

When gas costs $50 per gallon, creative solutions seem to spring forth. Two business partners in Gaza have converted a 1994 Peugeot 205 into an electric car capable of going 110 miles on a single charge using 34 standard lead-acid car batteries.

The PLX Kiwi dashboard computer plugs into your car and provides real-time info on how your driving habits affect gas usage — and how to correct them for maximum fuel efficiency.