PUBLIC MARKS from multilinko with tag efficiency

Canada’s mixture of un-ambitious standards, voluntary programs and lack of effective incentives, has left us lagging behind many jurisdictions. Other countries have combined significantly higher energy performance standards with targeted incentives to improve energy efficiency and control greenhouse gas emissions.

Pulsar Advanced Technologies has announced that, starting next week, they will launch the MK4, a microwave-powered on-demand water heater. Why is this cool? Well, until now, you had two options: electric heaters that keep a large amount of water hot at all times, or natural gas heaters that heat up water on-demand. The first is very costly and wasteful, and the second is not available to everyone, especially those in rural areas. You can't heat water up quickly enough with conventional resistance-based electric elements, as it would require huge amount of electricity. Not so with microwaves. The Vulcanus MK4 can heat water from 35 degrees Fahrenheit to 140 degrees Fahrenheit in seconds and can source multiple applications at once: showers, dishwasher, sink usages and more.

The New York Times has an interesting piece on the slow but steady movement to reduce the power drain for appliances that are never truly turned off when they are powered down.

Environmentalists already are criticizing the proposal, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Eric Haxthausen, an economist with Environmental Defense, told the newspaper the rules are "woefully inadequate." The paper reported Tuesday that environmental lobbyists are looking for the fuel economy target to be raised about 1.5 miles per gallon over three years, beginning with the 2008 model year.

The proposal is a complicated formula based on the dimensions (not weight) of six different categories of such vehicles. Smaller pickups, minivans, and SUVs would have to become stingier on gas between now and 2011 than under current law (28.4 miles per gallon instead of 23.5 m.p.g.); for larger light truck models, the requirement would actually be reduced somewhat (21.3 m.p.g. instead of 23.5 m.p.g.). Highway behemoths - Hummer H2s, Ford Excursions, and other models weighing between 8,500 and 10,000 pounds - would remain exempt from fuel economy standards on the grounds that they're a very small percentage of all personal vehicles on the road today.