How Do You Spell Relief?

Is the Economy Giving You Heartburn? Well, Put Down the Rolaids and Contact Your Representative

Representative Earl Blumenauer (the rep for most of us here at Better World Club) is sponsoring a bill called the Transportation and Housing Choices for Gas Price Relief Act.

The Act recognizes that high gas prices and a sluggish economy are encouraging Americans to use public transportation in record numbers. Unfortunately, in too many cities and small towns there's inadequate access to such transit.

"There is no magic silver bullet that will solve the energy crisis, but there are things we can do now to reduce the impact of high gas prices on American families," said Rep. Blumenauer. "One thing we must do is give people more transportation choices, and my bill does this by offering incentives for commuters to carpool, ride public transit, bicycle, or telecommute. By diminishing the impact of gas prices on family budgets, these common sense ideas can make an immediate difference in the lives of over-stretched Americans."

This bill was only recently introduced and isn't up for a vote yet. Thus, we urge our readers to Drive Change by contacting their Representatives in Congress and asking them to cosponsor this important piece of legislation.

- Click here to read the bill in all its glory

Prius and Prejudice II: The Case Against the Case Against the Electric Car (and the Case for It, Too!)

Last month, Sunil Somalwar, a physics professor at Rutgers University, was kind enough to submit an article to Driving Change entitled "Prius and Prejudice: A Case Against the Electric Car". The piece generated a lot of responses, both pro and con.

This month, we're publishing these responses from our readers and asking others to post their own opinions to the comments section at the end of this article (this is a new feature!). Complete Story / Comment On This Story

Additional Ways to Get Where You're Going:

Google is going to help you get your (hot) rocks off with geothermal energy.

Small Engine, Big Mileage, Same Power? Just Say "GDI"

HybridCars.com

Okay, now the carmakers say they get it. Americans want better fuel economy, and they want it now. And just to make sure that message was received, last December Congress passed a law that requires fleet mileage of 35 mpg by 2020.

So how does the industry plan to get there? Despite what many green consumers might like to think, we won't all be driving electric cars or even hybrids next year. Hybrids may be a much larger portion of the market by 2015GM exec Bob Lutz says it may be 30 percent, certainly higher than the current 2.5 percentbut large numbers of cars between now and 2020 will still be fueled by plain old gasoline. Complete Story