For me, the highlight of the weekend's panel discussions at the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo was two guys just sitting around and chatting. The reason the hour-long freeflowing discussion between the men was so good was that they - Dan Neil (left in the picture above) and Ken Bensinger, both writers at the Los Angeles Times - were smart, funny and unafraid. Basically, it's what you want in a discussion of where things stand today in the automotive industry: two people calling it like they see it.

Introduced by LA City Councilmember Wendy Greuel, the panelists covered everything from the cars on the expo floor - Bensinger called them the Model Ts of the new generation - the just how great gas is - Neil made the very reasonable point that, from an energy perspective, "liquid petroleum kicks ass." Details on what else made up the discussion are available after the jump.

Finally, we've discovered the BMW Hydrogen 7's perfect refueling station. A new Shell station that sells both hydrogen and standard gasoline opened yesterday in West Los Angeles (oh so close to Hollywood, which is providing most of the the drivers for the dual-fuel luxury vehicle). The station is located on Santa Monica Boulevard and Federal Avenue, near I-405. If I'm not mistaken - and I might very well be, so feel free to say so in the comments - this is right near the recently-opened Tesla Motors store, which is kind of ironic.

New FCX Clarity drivers and participants in GM's Project Driveway should be able to refuel their cars at the station and feel pretty good about the provenance of their purchase. Shell will be selling hydrogen made using electrolysis right there at the station. To further cast a green haze over the whole thing, Shell is buying "green electricity" from the utilities to crack the water.

[Source: Shell Hydrogen LLC]

Ford is providing Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguards with 45 customized Escape Hybrids. The Escapes will be used to patrol 72 miles of Southern California coastline. According to Mike Frazer, chief of Lifeguard Services for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, "We wanted to be the first public safety agency in the country to go green." The Escape Hybrid qualifies for California's PZEV standard. The lifeguards are switching from pick-up trucks to the hybrid SUV after they verified its performance on sand. While the eco characteristics of the hybrid powertrain, such as 29/27 mpg (city/hwy), were a plus, the vehicles needed to be adapted to meet the lifeguards' needs. Therefore, the following changes were made:

• A rescue equipment storage unit - an aluminum box with specially designated spaces for important emergency equipment, such as defibrillators, trauma boxes and oxygen tanks.
• Several radios stacked up in a rack placed where the center console is.
• A custom-fit roof rack for the lifeguards' paddle board and spine board.
• Easy-to-clean rubber floor mats and cargo liners.
• And of course, some iconic yellow paint.

Full press release after the jump.

In Los Angeles for a short visit, I heard that area highways - famous 'round the world for bad traffic - have actually been making headlines because of high gas prices. Seems that the era of $4+/gallon fuel here in the Sunshine Golden state is bringing traffic levels on the freeways down to 1980s levels, or thereabouts. Public transportation, on the other hand, is picking up riders. Another big trend in California is a move towards hybrids and away from big vehicles.

This isn't just news here in LA; USAToday has a story, well, today, about how gas prices are "rattling" Americans and are forcing many to change their/our habits. And why not? Some people are saving up to $400 a month by not commuting by car. Others are working longer hours just to pay for gas. In the entire country, we're driving fewer miles today than we did last year - the first time the number has gone down in three decades. As we all know, driving less is the single easiest way to reduce fuel usage and green up your car. Looks like some of us are finally getting the message.

[Source: AFP, USAToday, h/t to Simin]

I know this is not the most important issue facing the country at the moment but there seems to hybrid parking mayhem going on in Los Angeles. If you're there, driving around right now, pay attention to the road and read this later or pull over or something. Geez.

If you're a hybrid owner in LaLa land you are probably aware that for the past three years you have been allowed to park without feeding the meter and without any ticket worries. According to news articles from several different publications, this has changed. Depending on which version of the story you want to believe, the city has reversed itself on free parking because it has a huge budget shortfall of $500 million to make up and it needs every penny of the $114,000 (or one percent of total parking meter revenue) the program is estimated to cost. Or, behind door number three, we have the reasoning that, because the program has been so wildly successful, hybrids now run rampant city-wide, eating everything in their path. I feel I have to go with first excuse. Not because hybrids aren't capable of becoming crazed car killers because that could actually happen. Rather, if one percent of all potential parkers is your definition of a wild success, I'd be curious to hear what constitutes extremely mediocre.

But since L.A. is adjacent to Hollywood there may be a happy ending to this tale of parking woe. If you like to supplement your info intake by reading cool blogs then you may have read on the LAist that if you drive a Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Prius,or Ford Escape Hybrid you can still park for free, even if you don't have a Clean Air Vehicle Decal. This happy ending may not last forever so pay attention to the blogs as well as the road.

[Source: LAist]