Yet another New England dam, just sitting there, doing nothing.

I've lived in New England for most of my life. And what I know about New England is that the sound of a babbling brook or river is never far away. I also know that there are probably hundreds of old dams in these rivers & brooks that are abandoned and rotting away. If you live in New England, you probably have at least one in your town. In recent years, some communities downstream from these rotting dams have experienced increased flooding as the dams begin to fail. This seems like a terrible waste to me. Many of these dams used to generate power years ago. Why not repair them and put them back to work? I'm not talking about building new dams and flooding new areas, displacing animals and people. I'm talking about just repairing and employing existing old dams. Lets throw some generators in there! They worked once; they can work again! As I've said before (and I'll say it again), we need to think small when it comes to producing energy. We don't have to power an entire city, state or region with these dams. Let's start with a house; a street; an area. Let's just get that power into the grid. Big projects become paralyzed and move at a glacial pace. Small projects get funded and they get done. That's what we need to do: get it done, one small project at a time. If you know of a dam in your area, make some inquiries. Who owns it? What's it doing there? When was the last time it was repaired? Can we put it to work? What can I do to help? Here's a story about an old hydro dam in England being put back to work.

You may have heard that California is becoming the new Detroit, with Silicon Valley R&D and business savvy driving new kinds of progressive car companies. All I can say is it's about time! I have never, ever been able to bring myself to buy an American-brand car due to fuel inefficiency and poor reliability. If ever I was tempted, all I had to do was listen to friends and family talk about their latest trip to the shop with their American label cars. Meanwhile, my Japanese cars have performed like the old reliable workhorses that they are for years & years. I've only owned 2 cars since 1987.

So while I would like to buy American, I've never seen an American car that I'd like to buy. I hope the times are changing and that these new California companies survive their birth and adolescence in today's economy so that some day I can try them out here in New England.

The new car company that is getting the most press is Tesla Motors. Right now they are working on producing a flashy looking roadster with some impressive specs: It's 100% electric; goes from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds; and has a range of 244 miles on a single charge. But the price tag is well over 6 figures. And unfortunately plans for a more moderately priced sedan are being scaled back due to the recent credit crunch.

To the right is a video from a new owner of one of these vehicles, which I've found to be pretty informative regarding look & feel and what it's like to drive one, which is important to most people.

Another company that I heard about only recently is Aptera. Technically the Aptera is classified as a motorcycle since it only has three wheels but it has the capacity for two adults and a child; Or two adults, two surfboards and miscellaneous beach gear; Or two adults and more grocery bags than you'll ever need.

They're working on two models: An all-electric and a plug-in hybrid (gasoline-electric). The all-electric model has a range of about 120 miles or about 3 or 4 times the typical round-trip commute. The plug-in hybrid gets about 130 mpg if you run it continuously until both battery and gasoline are spent. If you keep it charged up, say plug it in every 120 miles, it gets 300 mpg.

The look of the vehicle may not appeal to a lot of people. It looks more like a futuristic Cessna than a car (or motorcycle, for that matter) but it will appeal to a certain market segment and with a $30,000 price tag, it's certainly more affordable than a Tesla. Right now they are taking orders only for delivery in California because they need to work out registration, licensing & insurance rules state by state due to its vehicle classification. Plus distribution & service infrastructures will take some time. They also need to work out a design that will work well in winter conditions. But this is a young company with only two prototypes so far. If they succeed in California, you can be sure they will work out regional difficulties to offer their products nationally.