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A Minnesota biofuels company that has attracted visits from financiers, scientists, customers and the federal government has produced a clean diesel fuel from algae harvested from a pond next door to its Anoka County plant.

via Pond full of scum produces a tank full of cheap diesel.

Trying to find some now!

With $8 billion in federal grants for high-speed rail corridors and intercity passenger rail up for grabs, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday ordered a statewide study to determine the best rail projects for which Minnesota should pursue stimulus funding.

via It’s full steam ahead on Minnesota rail plans.

I’m pretty sure that this is the same Gov. Pawlenty that has tried to, uh, derail, these projects in the past, but whatever… there’s no time like the present!

I’m waiting at Dunn Brothers while my new tires get installed at the Southwest Firestone.

I purchased the Bridgestone Ecopia EP100s for my Golf… after not really too much research 🙂

They are a brand-new tire developed (marketed) as a “green” option for tires. Since the Golf gets very good mileage, I thought, why not try to maximize that a bit with tires?

Think of Ecopia as a bold step forward. It’s an environmentally conscious tire designed to improve rolling resistance, which will help passenger cars achieve better gas mileage — without sacrificing the smooth, quiet ride or reliable wet handling you’ve come to expect from Bridgestone tires.

(says the marketing materials)

Barry at Southwest Firestone says that it’s the first set of Ecopia’s they’ve sold, so I’ll take your thanks in advance on being a guinea pig for a brand-new tire.

I’ll have to report back on how they actually perform, but I’m excited to take a good road trip and see what happens. I’m switching from a fairly high-performance tire (more sticky, less mpg) to this tire, so my expections may be a bit too high in terms of the cornering performance, for example.

But, the first time I drive up to the cabin and get a 50+mpg tank, I’ll be pretty happy! 🙂

With $8 billion in the federal stimulus package devoted to high-speed rail projects, supporters of the long-planned high-speed train from Chicago to St. Paul are scrambling to prepare a proposal strong enough to grab some of that money.

via High-speed train from Chicago: Next stop, Minneapolis?.

It wasn’t clear to me if this was “High-Speed” as the US Government currently defines it… 89mph I think. Or if it was High Speed as the Japanese might define it.

Update: After reading the article a bit closer, it’s 110mph, as is the current government definition… it would be a 5 1/2 hour trip.

Either way, great news for traveling out of minneapolis/st. paul to chicago. And great news for rail around the country.

I knew something was fishy when the bloomington schools canceled school last week because of “biodiesel” when every other school bus in the state uses the same 2% biodiesel. (As mandated by law)

And, yep, as it turns out:

Citing an independent study, the Minnesota Department of Commerce reiterated today that biodiesel was not the culprit that caused school buses in Bloomington, Minn. to malfunction last week.

Now… if only I could get 100% biodiesel again this summer!

Because the apple juice news team is fair and balancedâ„¢, we are updating an earlier story, Starting My Car in the Winter

After a week of subzero temperatures, culminating in Thursday night’s -25 degree reading, my car failed to start without a jump. The battery simply couldn’t turn the engine fast enough.

Now, since it did in fact start, after the laborous process of pushing it out into the alley so I could hook jumper cables to a neighbors car, I do not count this as “not starting”.

But since boasting of my record of starting the car in the winter, I thought it would be fair to share that I needed the jump-start.

regular news updates to resume shortly…

Most conversations about my car go like this:

“So that thing is a diesel?”
“Yup”
“Um, how’s it start in the winter?”
“Pretty good.”

So, I decided to take a little video. I have an enormous minnesota accent! Do I always have that?

Geez.

Anyway, enjoy me being a nerd.