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In certain parts of rural Colorado, this is what happens if you light a match next to your running tap water.

The documentary film by Josh Fox titled Gasland explains how flammable tap water came to be.  The film airs on HBO tonight, and the network’s synopsis of the movie includes:

Fox reveals alarming facts about America’s natural gas industry.  In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, championed by then-Vice President Dick Cheney, which exempted fracking [hydraulic fracturing] from numerous long-held environmental regulations such as the Safe Drinking Water Act.  Natural gas companies have installed hundreds of thousands of rigs in 34 states, drilling into huge shale fields, tight sands or coal bed seams containing gas deposits trapped in the rock.  Each well requires the use of fracking fluids – chemical cocktails consisting of 596 chemicals, including carcinogens and neurotoxins, as well as one to seven million gallons of water, which are infused with the chemicals.  Considering there are approximately 450,000 wells in the U.S., Fox estimates that 40 trillion gallons of chemically infused water have been created by the drilling, much of it seeping or injected into the ground across the country.

And we thought the BP gulf spill was bad.  It is, but pumping trillions of gallons of toxic chemicals into the land that seeps into our nation’s waters supply could be just as bad or worse.

Regulations?  We don’t need no stinking government regulations.  The huge corporations in the trillion-dollar extraction industries have nothing but our best interests in mind when they drill wells 5,000 feet below the surface of the ocean and pump trillions of gallons of flammable carcinogens into the earth that seep into our groundwater supplies.  There’s nothing to worry about here…  No need for government watchdogs to get involved!  I mean really, what could possibly go wrong if companies that exist solely to create profits go fracking around the country in search of natural gas?

Previously, I wrote a post “Screw hybrids, I wanna go electric“.

Well, I have changed my story…. Screw electric, gimme a BMW Hybrid.

With the power and performance of an M3 while sipping electrical current in the evening to recharge, now that’s what I want for my daily driving.

From Wired:

The EfficientDynamics is a 2+2 four-door hybrid that combines M Series performance with better fuel efficiency and less emissions than you see in many compacts. BMW performs this magic by marrying its ActiveHybrid technology with an extremely economical engine and excellent aerodynamics. The result is a concept car with a top speed governed at 155 mph and a zero-to-62 acceleration time of 4.8 seconds. More impressive, the car gets 62.2 mpg and emits a Prius-like 99 grams of CO2 per kilometer.

Check out this video of the design team discussing the vehicle:

PRESS RELEASE

SEATTLE (April 28, 2009) – The Renault-Nissan Alliance today announced that Nissan and the City of Seattle are forming a partnership to advance zero-emission mobility by promoting the development of an electric vehicle (EV) charging network. Nissan will introduce zero-emission vehicles in the United States in 2010 and will mass market them globally two years later.

“Nissan through the Renault-Nissan Alliance has committed to being a global leader in zero-emission vehicles,” said Dominique Thormann, senior vice president, administration and finance, Nissan North America. “Nissan and the City of Seattle share in the belief that electric vehicles offer one of the best solutions to reducing CO2 emissions. This partnership expands our infrastructure development efforts on the West Coast, which also includes initiatives in Oregon and California, and is an important step in making zero emissions a reality from Seattle to San Diego.”

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has set a goal to combine clean, green electricity with the city’s transportation system. In Seattle, power comes from the city’s utility, Seattle City Light, the first public utility in the world to be “net zero” for greenhouse gas emissions.

“From light rail to street cars to electric vehicles, we’re reducing the impact of transportation on our climate,” said Mayor Nickels. “Electric-powered transportation is particularly attractive in a city with a carbon-neutral utility, generating clean electricity through hydropower.”

As part of the agreement, Nissan and the City of Seattle will develop plans to promote a charging infrastructure for EVs, as well as the deployment, operation and maintenance of a charging network. The partners also will work to coordinate the establishment of policies and help streamline the deployment of an EV infrastructure. Nissan also has agreed to make available a supply of EVs in and around the Seattle metropolitan area.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance has begun ZEV initiatives in Kanagawa Prefecture and Yokohama in Japan, as well as in Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Monaco, the UK, France, Switzerland, Ireland, China and Hong Kong. In the United States, the Alliance is exploring ways to promote zero-emission mobility and the development of an EV infrastructure in the State of Tennessee, the State of Oregon, Sonoma County and San Diego in California, and Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.

Nissan North America
In North America, Nissan’s operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.infinitiusa.com.

Renault-Nissan Alliance
The Renault-Nissan Alliance, founded in 1999, sold 6,160,046 vehicles in 2007. The objective of the Alliance is to rank among the world’s top three vehicle manufacturers in terms of quality, technology and profitability.