When you think of a 68,000-seat football stadium, the first thing you think of is … well, football. But the fall of 2007 saw Qwest Field, home of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, become the site of a unique event called “Clean Vehicles Now!” And the Energy Rush TV crew was there.

In fact, the organizers of the event, King County, Washington, asked us to help them scout the location in preparation for the big day. We got a behind-the-scenes look at one of the nation’s most impressive sports venues. When the “Clean Vehicles Now!” show happened, Energy Rush TV had an information booth placed right next to the registration tables.

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Do you own a VW like I do? Check out the “Carbon Neutral” section of the VW site. You can see how many hundreds of thousands of tons are being offset by VW owners on the Carbon Counter, learn about the VW forest (yes, it sounds weird, but they swear they’re going to help off-set carbon emissions by re-foresting the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley), and learn about how you can become more ‘carbon neutral’ too (Carbonfund.org is helping out with the footprinting). Since we’re not going to get Carbon-Negative anytime soon…it’s nice that VW is making an effort to help offset!

–Refined gOil

Brad’s comment on the last blog inspired me to write again. I’ve been a little down lately, mainly because it seems like the task ahead is just so huge. As I blogged a bit earlier, so many people still know nothing or very little about alternative fuel — and it’s absolutely not their fault. Of course I’m hoping that EnergyRush will be a kind and clever forum for newly interested people to learn and share, and that’s only a positive thing. The thing that’s depressing is simply the fact that there isn’t more clear public information dispersed widely through reputable news sources (we are certainly reputable, we’re just slightly unknown).

Then I was watching television a couple of weeks ago, and I saw this Chevrolet Ad . At first, I was simply thrilled to see an attractive commercial like this — still am. But when I realized what the gimmick behind the ad was, I was a bit deflated. Subliminally, it’s designed to make the uninitiated viewer feel less intelligent that the children featured in the spot who know about hydrogen and its byproduct. Yes, feeling less intelligent than a child about a given subject would likely make any adult run out and grab an encyclopedia, which is a very effective way to inspire learning. But it’s also a testament to the 21st century fact(??) that it takes an insult to get consumers on their feet and ready to make a change. But like I said, I enjoyed the ad, and actually I think it’s a great bit of social commentary.

Also, I saw There Will Be Blood, which is not the most soothing salve to the oil-crushed soul.

So, if you’re reading this Brad, I really appreciate your interest in the site, and you made my day — I just felt I had to explain my long hiatus and my blahs… =)

–Refined gOil

P.S. Josh Tickell’s film Fields of Fuel is a Sundance smash: “Tallied throughout the 10 days of the Festival, Audience Awards are given to a film in the Dramatic and Documentary Competitions and are presented by Volkswagen of America, Inc…The Audience Award: Documentary was presented to Josh Tickell’s Fields of Fuel, a look at America’s addiction to oil. Tickell is a man with a plan and a Veggie Van, who is taking on big oil, big government, and big soy to find solutions in places few people have looked.” Check out the Sundance site if you care to!

Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington is remarkable for a lot of reasons. One of them is the Vehicle Research Institute. Automobile magazine said of the VRI that it’s “very possibly the best school in the country for total car design.” That was reason enough for the Energy Rush TV team to travel to this campus located just south of the Canadian border, and that’s exactly what we did last summer.

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Guess what??

Virgin Atlantic is testing a 20% biofuel blend in a commerical jet in February. Here’s the story:

Virgin Gets With It (my title)

And know what biofuel crop they’re considering most seriously? Algae!

We love algae!

–Refined gOil

Here at EnergyRushTV, we’ve been talking off and on to the management of Imperium Renewables for well over a year. Imperium is a national leader in the production of biodiesel fuels, and construction of their new refinery in Grays Harbor near the coast of Washington state had been underway for some time.

When the time came for the official grand opening event at the new refinery, naturally our team had to be there. On August 15, 2007 we traveled to the event which was attended by U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, U.S. Representative Norm Dicks, as well as representatives of Governor Chris Gregoire, the Port of Grays Harbor, and the National Biodiesel Board. Hundreds of people came from as far away as the East Coast to attend the kickoff event, and we were there to shoot it all on High Definition video.

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I’m still amazed at how many people think that it’s necessary to do a mechanical conversion to get a car to run on Biodiesel — some new friends of mine couldn’t quite wrap their heads around the fact that Biodiesel can be put directly into a Diesel engine with no modification. I think that the first misconception was that I am running my car on “Vegetable Oil”. I started to explain the difference between that and Biodiesel, but I think I lost them early on, around “SVO”. Perhaps my skills of explanation are somewhat lacking. I have possessed at least a general, broad base knowledge of these things for a couple of years now (although I am in no way an expert at any of it). But it got me thinking back to the time when I knew nothing about alternative fuels. Frankly, I don’t think I knew that there was even an application for diesel engines other than in big trucks or semis. I remember being surprised to learn that many of those cute old Mercedes Benzes that I saw driving around were not run on gasoline. Maybe I’m hankering for the days when ‘Shop’ and ‘Auto Mechanics’ were courses offered in high school. What happened to that? I’m sure vocational studies still exist in high schools…but why weren’t they offered in mine? I wish wish wish that I had had the opportunity to study about the workings of my own car at an early age. No one told me it was important. So silly how much I took for granted then; and what I take for granted now, assuming that alternative fuel and energy are known about by everyone.

I feel empowered learning about these things now, teaching myself, selecting what I’m going to study. Guess it’s all part of growing up. And when I’m the first to inform a new friend that change is just around the corner, that alternative fuel options aren’t really that complex or futuristic — and I see the light bulb go on — it’s really a satisfying feeling. Word of mouth is the only way we’re gonna make this happen more quickly. Grassroots!

–Refined gOil

Very important documentary:  A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash, produced and directed by Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack. I believe it was released in 2006, so I’m a little behind the times, but it doesn’t surprise me that the film was not advertised or given very wide release in light of the political climate we’re all weathering. Actually, the best thing about the film is its lack of bleeding hearts and artists; it features scientists and experts from around the globe, all putting forth the simple fact that the world has reached or is about to reach peak oil production — and that there are just no more reserves of note to be discovered on the planet. The science behind it is clear and understandable, and although no one is, as I said, portrayed as a sentimental environmentalist, it’s obvious that there is passion and deep feeling behind the subject; within the interviews, the subjects are trying to hold back that emotion. It’s visible, and it’s true. In acting, they always say that it’s more interesting to watch someone try not to cry…witness the veracity of that maxim in A Crude Awakening, and see if don’t find yourself choking back a tear or two in the face of what’s actually going on with oil.–Refined gOil

The EnergyRushTV team had been doing some research about the “Challenge X” competition. It didn’t take us long to figure out that we needed to take an up close and personal look at this fascinating event. So last autumn, we did a cross-country tour which started out in Northern California and ended up in Detroit, Michigan.

We’ve been covering the activities of the engineering school at the University of California, Davis for the past couple of years. The man in charge of their alternative vehicle research program is Dr. Andrew Frank, Professor of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. We’ve met with and interviewed Dr. Frank all over the country, but this time we were interested in the vehicle his team of students was prepping for the Challenge X.

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