Natural gas is often seen as the bridge fuel to a clean-energy futureits abundant, reliable, and has about half the emissions of coal. Today, a couple of reminders of just how tricky it can be to really make that gas-powered energy revolution a reality.
In California, state regulators are concerned that new emissions rules from the Environmental Protection Agency could actually retard the states efforts to clean up its energy mix, The Wall Street Journal reports today.
Hows that? California plans a massive increase in the use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar powerbut needs new natural-gas fired power plants as backup. New EPA rules on greenhouse-gas emissions from big emitterspower plants and the likewill now require permits for gas-fired plants. That could actually set back Californias green dreams, the paper reports:
In a Dec. 24 letter to the EPA, the California Energy Commission, which oversees energy policy in the state, said the EPA’s proposal “will likely retard, rather than facilitate,” reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions from its electricity sector.
Half a world away, Britain is doing its own gymnastics to meet two often irreconcilable goals: Cleaner energy and energy security. The U.K. is racing ahead with ambitious plans for offshore wind power; last Fridays offshore tender would provide enough clean energy, on paper, to supply one-quarter of British electricity needs.
But, as in California, all those wind farms require lots of new natural-gas plants to act as backup power. Unlike the U.S., most European countries arent awash in natural gasmost import it from Russia, Norway, or North Africa.
The U.K., in particular, is worried that its drive for cleaner energy, which will require more natural gas at least until wind farms and a new generation of nuclear plants are built, will actually undermine its energy security.
With variations, thats a theme that repeats itself across the Continent (as well as in the U.S), with three energy goals often at odds with each othercleaner energy, cheaper energy, and energy security.
Natural gas offers a seemingly easy way to tackle one of those challenges. That doesnt make it a silver bullet for all of them.
The last month of 2009 proved to be much better than the entire year for most carmakers, as nearly all posted increased sales over the rest of the year. Even if this growth can be easily explained by the fact that December 2008 marked the begging of the decline for the auto industry, the fact that the "+" sign now sits in front of the sales reports can do nothing but please carmakers and leave room for hope. 
As chargers and power adapters—and the number of gadgets we carry—become ever more unwieldy, a solution like the 
Everything’s beginning to come together for the launch of Apple’s tablet — quite literally, in fact, as Apple’s suppliers for the device begin to ship component parts or are ramping up for production in the near future. That’s according to 
At this years NAIAS, Toyota is debuting their new Auto Access Seat, designed for the 2011 Sienna minivan. This will make Toyota the first carmaker in North America to offer a factory-installed, rotating, power ascending/descending lift-up seat, for those who may need assistance getting in or out of a vehicle.
In a type of announcement we don’t get to see every day, German carmaker Audi stepped in and told the world that it has exceeded the sales forecast for 2009 (after it upgraded it in mid year) and sold 949,700 cars worldwide last year. This means Audi sales dropped only 5.4 percent on the 2008 record figure (1,003,469 vehicles).
New York City 
