News Roundup
News Roundup for March 11
HELLO ELECTRIC
Electric Ford Transit
AT&T is becoming one of the first companies to buy Ford’s new all-electric Transit Connect vans. The phone giant plans to take delivery later this year of two of the vans, which can go up to 80 miles on a full charge. “Cleaner, alternative-fuel vehicles are the future of our corporate fleet,” said Jerome Webber, vice president of fleet operations at AT&T, which has more than 77,000 vehicles.
THE ROSENFELD
Art Rosenfeld, a veteran researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, could soon have quite an honor. More than 50 scientists support a proposal to name the “Rosenfeld” as a new unit of energy savings. Each Rosenfeld would represent 3 billion kilowatt-hours of energy savings per year. Rosenfeld’s work has focused on energy efficiency since the energy crisis in the 1970s.
HEAD OF THE CLASS
Adelphi University gets an A for environmental stewardship. The Long Island, N.Y., school said it has purchased more than 20 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy credits generated by wind farms. This will offset 100 percent of the electricity used at its campus in Garden City. “The investment in clean renewable energy to minimize the impact on the environment is a step in the right direction,” said Robert A. Scott, the university’s president.
HAWAIIAN WIND
Hawaii is taking a big step toward its goal of getting 40 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030. The U.S. Department of Energy said it will guarantee a $117 million loan to establish a 30 megawatt wind farm near Kahuku, Hawaii. With oil accounting for 77 percent of Hawaii’s electricity generation, Ted Peck, state energy administrator, called the wind farm “one more step toward loosening the shackles of fossil fuel.”
―Based on news and wire reports
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