Space is at a premium on Moscow’s roadways, and clean air is hard to come by.

But if the CEO of Revolta has anything to do with it, the game may be changing – with a vast network of 2,000 charging stations for battery-powered cars sprouting up in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Samara and Kaluga.

The company and its American investors claim the 1.5 billion rubles sunk into this project will clear cities of air pollution, and keep roads quieter. This sounds perfect for the frazzled nerves of commuters, who move within a 35 kilometer radius regularly. Revolta thinks it is the start of a new trend.

“I drive an i-MiEV, for example,” Maxim Osorin, Revolta CEO, told RT. “Every second traffic light stop I get a lot of attention from a lot of people around, because people have a very little opportunity to see cars on the go and when an X-5 owner sees this little car pass him by, it’s really trendy.”

There is no denying that top-of-the-line models are not cheap, though total the total cost of ownership is quite low. You are not paying for the ever-changing gas prices or maintaining oil, and fewer moving parts mean fewer repairs. A big question on everybody’s mind is, however, resale value.

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Thanks to the gloomy financial crisis, recycling our old clothes might just be the ultimate fashion trend of 2011.

But, if you’re sick of rummaging through your wardrobe, you may want to try this…

Scottish Designer of the Year nominee, Judy Clark has designed a dress made of used car parts.

Read the full article here.

Those brazen acts have now gained the attention of the British Columbia government, which intends to stem rampant metal theft with new legislation this fall.

B.C. Solicitor General Shirley Bond said her government recognizes that the issue has a huge economic impact, but it’s public safety that is behind the planned new law.

“Any time we see 911 going down as a result of metal theft, we have to do something about it,” she said.

Shawn Hall, a spokesman with Telus, said there has been 200 incidents this year alone of copper cable stolen from the telephone company and in each incident the phone lines are down for up to 36 hours.

“Make no mistake about it, these thieves are putting our customers’ lives at risk. It’s only a matter of time before someone tried to dial 911 and can’t because someone’s cut our line.”

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The Myers Motors NmG vehicle, known as the pickle car, was one of many electric and hybrid vehicles on display at the Green Car Show, which U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (13th Dist.) hosted at the Naperville Test Track.

Biggert was on hand at the event, along with Naperville Mayor George Pradel, both took spins around the track in electric vehicles. Biggert drove the $145,000 Tesla Motors Roadster.

Carol Richart of Downers Grove brought her grandaughters and one of their friends with to the show. A retired science teacher, Richart said she wants to make sure her granddaughters know about the science of car building, so that maybe one day they might be interested in a career related to technology.

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Mercedes, Porsche and BMW — brands that are synonymous with affluence — are producing vehicles that use electricity, ethanol and even hydrogen.

The trend is driven by higher gasoline prices, the recession and stricter government fuel-efficiency standards.

“Buyers are going to start demanding more fuel efficiency even from luxury cars,” says Bill Visnic, analyst and senior editor at Edmunds.com, an automotive research and review website. “Even if they can afford (higher gasoline prices), it still works on their psychology.”

The green option also can serve as a counterweight to the conspicuous consumption many associate with luxury vehicles.

According to information posted this morning on www.otcmarkets.com the Company reported a loss of $202,952 for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 compared to a loss last year of $883,831 for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, an improvement of $680,879 over 2010. The loss resulted in a reduction in the Company’s Stockholders’ Equity of $202,952 but the Company’s Total Assets increased by $225,468 to $1,523,354.

Read the entire news release here.

As we accumulate more reusable bags, many of them go unused. Reusable bags are creating their own environmental problems. What’s the answer?

Over the weekend, we took a minivan full of stuff to Goodwill. Included were several reusable cotton bags that we’d been given over the years from businesses and organizations – bags that I never used because we have so many reusable bags, and I’ve discovered which ones meet my needs the best. The rest just sit there.

This morning, I read an interesting piece on Philly.com about reusable bags. Although the reusable bag market has grown, there isn’t any hard evidence that suggests the plastic bag market has decreased. In fact, “indirect measures suggest that plastic bag production has remained relatively steady.”

Reusable bags are supposed to help us consume less, specifically fewer plastic and paper bags. The number of reusable bags being given away at Earth Day events, sporting events, town festivals, banks, grocery stores and more ends up in the millions each year, and not everyone who is given a bag uses it. (Target gave away a million reusable bags in April.)

Sometimes they go unused because they are of inferior quality. Sometimes they go unused because they end up in a pile of other free, unused reusable bags. Sometimes the person who accepted it never gets into the habit of using it.

With all of these bags going unused, a new environmental problem is developing – bags that end up getting thrown away without having been used. When the Chicago Bears gave away 40,000 bags at a 2009 game, many of them ended up in the stadium trash. I wonder about the bags that I took to Goodwill over the weekend. Is anyone ever going to use them?

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The more than 5,000 km (3,100 mile) journey of the “Wind Explorer” was the first major test for the prototype car, which its German inventors hoped would show that the technology already exists to power cars with renewable energy even through tough trips like this one.

“It is the first ‘road worthy’ wind-generated car that can travel these distances, and definitely the first kite-propelled car to drive on the roads anywhere in the world,” said Dirk Gion, who with Stefan Simmerer built the vehicle.

“We wanted to show that if you build a light-weight electric efficient car, they are ready today.”

The open, vaguely racer-style car has a carbon-fiber body and bicycle tires and was powered primarily by a lithium ion battery that was recharged at night by a mobile wind turbine, although a kite similar to a parasail was used at times instead.

While the car weighs only 80 kg (177 lb) without the batteries, even with the batteries loaded it totals only around 200 kg — still far below the weight of an average car. It can reach speeds of over 90 km per hour.

During the journey, which ended in Sydney on Monday, Gion and Simmerer hit temperatures of 50 C to 60 C (122 F to 140 F) as they crossed the Nullarbor Plains, raising concerns that the batteries would overheat.

Their comfort also suffered at times due to the fact that the car sits only 15 cm (6 inches) off the road, Gion said.

“The hot air was coming into the car almost burning our skin, then three days later we had 7 degrees (45 F) and we were freezing,” he added.

Winds occasionally failed, forcing the pair to plug the car into the power grid at campsites and launderettes along the way to recharge. They ultimately ran 2,480 km on wind power, 480 km on kite power, and 2,100 km on electricity.

“The component of electricity powered from the grid cost about $10 Australian for the whole trip,” Gion said, adding that while the car still isn’t ready for practical use he has great expectations for the future.

Love this idea and hope to hear much more of this type of technology in the future.