About a month ago, I was a guest on the New York-based radio show The Lazy Environmentalist. While this show is broadcast on the Sirius satellite radio network (that means you've gotta pay for it), Josh Dorfman, the host, and his staff were kind enough to send me MP3 copies of the show, maybe because I forgave them for saying I write for GreenAutoBlog. They also gave us permission to share them with you. How do you like that, I get to share my own voice. Strange.

Anyway, we talked about the Tesla Roadster, the Phoenix SUT, the Chevy Volt and much more. The show is supposed to be call-in format but we didn't have time to take calls. I'll try to push for that the next time I'm (and let you know before it happens so you can call in).

Oh, and I managed to sneak in a reference to making watermelons into ethanol. How fun.
You can listen to Part One and Part Two, and thanks for indulging me.

Is there an echo in here, or is that just the shameless self-promotion I'm hearing?

In my work for AutoblogGreen, I'm dealt a number of press releases every day. These one-sided stories are useful in a lot of ways, so I get what I need from 'em and move on. But with one particular release I saw late last night, I needed to make sure I wasn't living in some sort of mirror.

The release comes courtesy of Ford, and they're trying to make the point that they are giving customers all of the green car choices possible, with E85 and hybrid engines, as well as upcoming long-distance hydrogen fuel cell prototypes and, well, more hydrogen. In the midst of quotes from Mark Fields, Ford president, The Americas and JoAnn Milliken, acting hydrogen program manager for the Department of Energy the release quotes, ahem, me. This caused a very surreal feeling in me. All of a sudden, I was a source in the very releases I sometimes use as sources. Very, very weird.

Anyway, the article that someone in Ford's PR department quoted from is one I recently wrote for the Ford Bold Moves website about hydrogen and Ford's future. You can read it here. Then use it in any announcements to the press that you'd like to make. I'll be able to handle it better the second time around.

[Source: Ford]

I'm not entirely sure just how much our editor Sebastian will like this general comparison, but when discussing transportation and energy issues both he and the somewhat controversial environmentalist George Monbiot like to say that despite all of the advances in alternative energy sources, there is simply no substitute for minimizing your vehicle/energy usage. In that vein, the United States Postal Service will be implementing a new digital map system to calculate more efficient delivery routes.

The system is called the Carrier Optimal Routing (COR) solution and was developed by RouteSmart Technologies in partnership with the USPS. In addition to calculating the most efficient routes available, it has the ability to make route adjustments whenever necessary. RouteSmart's optimization algorithms take advantage of NAVTEQ's digital map system. Although the USPS does not reveal a launch date, they say the system will be deployed nationwide.

[Source: NAVTEQ]

Yesterday I was in line at the post office, running out to attend to some errands between posts. Since my mind was on AutoblogGreen content, and this was no ordinary post office, I noticed a few things. Before I get to my mini-rant, let me say that the post office I was at is just a drive-through window. It's a full-featured office, sure, but there's no lobby. The entire office works from one window that you hand your mail through and where the nice postal employee hands you your stamps or whatever. Since I try to walk the walk of being green, I was on my bicycle in line behind four or five cars. They just sat there and idled as we waited. It took at least ten minutes for me to get to the window, and when I pushed off, there were seven or eight cars behind me, continuing the line around the lot.

We've heard a lot about the United States Postal Service and their shift to greener delivery vehicles. I'm sure at the organizational level, people are concerned with being green. This is great. But what of the regular old USPS delivery truck that sat in the parking lot just wasting energy as the driver talked with the staff member inside? I'm not frustrated that they wanted to chat, but turn the vehicle all the way off, why don't ya?

And the people in line. I don't know them, I don't have anything against them, but the woman with the "I vote to protect the environment" sticker on her Subaru slowly idling her way to the window was too much. Governments and companies and activists can make all the green decisions they want, but if We The People don't make changes in our personal lives, we're not going to have a beneficial environmental impact. To do this, we not only need good fuel saving tips (like these), but we need to move away from our old habits. I mean, it seems there is a clear manta about how idling takes more gas than shutting down and then re-starting up the car when the line moves (see debate/information here, here and here, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments below), but still people in drive through lanes throughout the country idle the day away.

It's hard to rant about people when you don't really know them - for all I know, the woman in the Subaru walks and bikes everywhere she goes and uses her car just one day a week - but standing there watching all this fuel being burnt for no good reason got me a little worked up. We need to do better, I thought. Then the rain started on the ride home, and I calmed down a bit. I'll keep on doing my best to green up this planet, but I'm sure in a few weeks I'll get riled up again over something. Stay tuned...

Related:

• USPS hybrid delivery vehicle being tested in Boston
• Australian government's advice to drive greener: drive less
• Biofuel news roundup: Pandas, the Postal Service and Case Construction Equipment

[Source: The slight build-up of bile in my brain]