Electric Vehicles: Coulomb Charging Station

I maintain that one of the most exciting changes that is going to develop in the next 10 years is the continued introduction of electric vehicles.

Whether these vehicles are PHEV (plugin hybrid electric vehicles) or straight EV (electric vehicles), the issue of charging infrastructure is going to be one of the most important (and potentially lucrative) issues that will need to be addressed.

Coulomb Technologies has been on a mission to address this issue, and recently their name has been popping up more and more in the news. Recently, Steven Chu congratulated Coulomb Technologies on their 500th charging station in the United States.

Coulomb already has an international presence with nearly 4,000 stations shipped worldwide, but it is still impressive to see that there have already been 500 installed in the United States (most of which are meant for public use).

I am personally excited about plugin vehicles because it opens the door for the following:

• New automotive innovations.
• American jobs (if the big producers get ahead of the curve and begin ramping up EV production).
• Clean energy production because people aren't going to want to expand the grid with traditionally dirty production to support this new clean transportation technology.
• More sustainable city living because these cars are currently perfect for short driving distances, and city residents typically never drive more than the ranges that these cars have to offer.

Either way, it was good to see Coulomb in the news with Steven Chu because this signals that the technology is catching on, and lets face it, I always love to have an excuse to post this picture of Steven Chu.

And We Are Back!

Sorry for the absence.

[insert excuse you don't care about]

Here is a comic to make up for it.

Hiatus

Work has been demanding for the past week, so I have been taking a break. Posts will begin again this coming Monday (5/16).

I appreciate your patience, and as a reward, here is a picture of the most awesome dog ever.

High-Speed Rail Is NOT Dead After Budget Fart

Twitter is great for a lot of things:

• Kim Kardashian non-sequiturs.
• Helping assholes make money even after everyone knows they are assholes (Charlie Sheen).
• Spam.
• Limited writing space.
• A false sense of community.

Did I say great? My bad. Twitter is terrible.

I guess this is why it comes as no surprise that it is not a great source for accurate information about real-world issues. The most recent panic that Twitter has caused is through inaccurate reporting of what has been killed by the most recent Federal Budget nonsense.

Contrary to popular Tweets, highspeed rail is not dead in the water. In fact, the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) will soon be dealing out a cool $2 billion in federal HSR grants for projects around the nation.

So the money is definitely still there. The trick is making sure that local politicians don't go screwing the pooch and not pursuing the money in a cheap political ploy to give the illusion that they are pursuing other avenues of job creation, which is totally misguided, short-term thinking.

Lets not forget that fuel prices are going to continue to rise at a quicker pace in the coming years, and alternative forms of transportation will be necessary.

If all of my rambling above hasn't convinced you that high-speed rail is alive and necessary, then you leave me no choice but to pursuade you with a picture of Thomas the Train.