Dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting both economic prosperity and environmental protection

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting both economic prosperity and environmental protection.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has named the Honda Civic GX natural gas car as the greenest vehicle in 2008, for the fifth consecutive year.

PRESS RELEASE:

Recognizing Honda’s application of fuel efficient and alternative fuel technologies, four Honda vehicles earned recognition from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) as the “greenest vehicles of 2008″ with the Civic GX natural gas car taking the title of the greenest vehicle for the fifth consecutive year, American Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced today. In the 11th annual ACEEE’s “Green Book® Online” ranking of environmentally responsible vehicles (available at http://www.greenercars.org/), the natural gas-powered Civic GX ranked first with the gasoline Civic, Fit and Civic Hybrid joining the list of the 12 most environmentally-conscious vehicles available to the public.

This is the eighth year in a row that a Honda vehicle received the number one ranking and the seventh consecutive year that Honda vehicles held at least four positions in the top 12, an impressive one-third of all vehicles on the list.

“The ACEEE awards speak to the commitment Honda has made to lead the industry in lowering emissions, increasing fuel efficiency and reducing dependence on oil,” said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda. “Honda continues to set the standard for socially and environmentally-responsible automotive products and our commitment to alternative fuels will further expand with the zero emissions FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle coming to market this summer.”

Using a singular measure that incorporates fuel economy, health-related pollution impacts and global warming emissions, all vehicles are analyzed and given a “Green Score.” This score is used in ACEEE’s ranking system, resulting in a ranking of each vehicle’s total environmental performance, including a list of the 12 “greenest” and 12 “meanest” vehicles. The Civic GX, first introduced in 1998, is the cleanest internal combustion vehicle certified by the EPA*, and is 90% cleaner than the average gasoline-powered car on the road today.

Honda has a long history of environmental leadership including the introduction of America’s first hybrid, the Honda Insight, delivery of the first fuel cell vehicle in the U.S., and the first vehicles to meet stricter emissions standards, including:

- The first gasoline Low Emissions Vehicle (LEV), the 1996 Honda Civic.
- The first gasoline Ultra-Low Emissions vehicle (ULEV), the 1998 Honda Accord.
- The first gasoline Super Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle (SULEV), the 2000 Honda Accord.
- The first Advanced Technology Partial-Zero Emissions Vehicle (AT-PZEV), the 2001 Civic GX natural gas vehicle.

*EPA Tier-2, Bin-2 and ILEV certification as of May 2007.

Civic GX is as clean as they come

While the folks at Tesla, ZAP! and other electric car manufacturers may take umbrage with the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) choice of the natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX as its Greenest Vehicle of 2008, for an internal combustion powered car, the Civic GX is as clean as they come. Ranking above the Civic Hybrid, the Fit and the regular petrol-powered Civic not to mention outscoring the Toyota Prius and the Smart ForTwo, the Civic GX makes a strong case for its place at the top of the list.

Honda Civic GX: Fueling's a Treasure Hunt on Weekend Trip

Took the Civic GX –just named greenest vehicle sold in the U.S. – on a 611-mile weekend trip. It takes a little planning when your fuel isn't the easiest to find, but all went well.

Part of the reason for taking the GX, usually just a commuter car, was to see if we could stand sitting in it for hours on end. Part was to see how difficult it would be to find the compressed natural gas it needs once we got out of the greater Los Angeles area.



Neither proved problematic, although figuring out the fueling logistics is a bit like planning a treasure hunt. And when you get to some of the stops, you find that CNG pumps aren't often in spots you really want to hang around in after dark.

Before departing, we plugged our starting point and destination into the mapping function of the federal Energy Department's alternative fuels site.

Green book ranks cars by fuel-efficiency

The Honda Civic GX, a car that runs on compressed natural gas and is only for sale in New York and California, topped the list for a fifth consecutive year.

Meanest, Greenest For '08 Ranked in New Green Book

It's not packed with sexy new technology like hybrid or fuel cell cars, but its clean, low-carbon fuel and respectable fuel economy combined to earn Honda's 2008 Civic GX top place on a leading environmental guide's "greenest cars" list for the fifth consecutive year.

Honda Civic GX Natural Gas Car Earns Top Spot on ACEEE's 'Greenest Vehicles of 2008' List for the Fifth Straight Year

TORRANCE, Calif., Feb 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Recognizing Honda's application of fuel efficient and alternative fuel technologies, four Honda vehicles earned recognition from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) as the "greenest vehicles of 2008" with the Civic GX natural gas car taking the title of the greenest vehicle for the fifth consecutive year, American Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced today. In the 11th annual ACEEE's "Green Book(R) Online" ranking of environmentally responsible vehicles (available at http://www.greenercars.org/), the natural gas-powered Civic GX ranked first with the gasoline Civic, Fit and Civic Hybrid joining the list of the 12 most environmentally-friendly vehicles available to the public.

This is the eighth year in a row that a Honda vehicle received the number one ranking and the seventh consecutive year that Honda vehicles held at least four positions in the top 12, an impressive one-third of all vehicles on the list.

"The ACEEE awards speak to the commitment Honda has made to lead the industry in lowering emissions, increasing fuel efficiency and reducing dependence on oil," said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda. "Honda continues to set the standard for socially and environmentally-responsible automotive products and our commitment to alternative fuels will further expand with the zero emissions FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle coming to market this summer."

Using a singular measure that incorporates fuel economy, health-related pollution impacts and global warming emissions, all vehicles are analyzed and given a "Green Score." This score is used in ACEEE's ranking system, resulting in a ranking of each vehicle's total environmental performance, including a list of the 12 "greenest" and 12 "meanest" vehicles. The Civic GX, first introduced in 1998, is the cleanest internal combustion vehicle certified by the EPA*, and is 90% cleaner than the average gasoline-powered car on the road today.

Honda has a long history of environmental leadership including the introduction of America's first hybrid, the Honda Insight, delivery of the first fuel cell vehicle in the U.S., and the first vehicles to meet stricter emissions standards, including:

-- The first gasoline Low Emissions Vehicle (LEV), the 1996 Honda Civic. -- The first gasoline Ultra-Low Emissions vehicle (ULEV), the 1998 Honda Accord. -- The first gasoline Super Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle (SULEV), the 2000 Honda Accord. -- The first Advanced Technology Partial-Zero Emissions Vehicle (AT-PZEV), the 2001 Civic GX natural gas vehicle.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting both economic prosperity and environmental protection.

*EPA Tier-2, Bin-2 and ILEV certification as of May 2007

For more information or downloadable high-resolution images of Honda award winners and other Honda vehicles, please visit http://www.hondanews.com/. Consumer information is available at http://www.honda.com/.

The Natural Gas Option

The Natural Gas Option As I noted in last Friday's posting, two recent scientific studies have severely undermined the environmental rationale for conventional biofuels, including corn ethanol. But if corn ethanol no longer looks attractive as a combined solution for our energy security and climate woes, where should we turn for a better alternative? As odd as it might sound to promote a fossil fuel, rather than another form of renewable energy, our lack of focus on natural gas as a transportation fuel seems equally surprising and illogical to me. It might not be the long-term answer to our complex needs, but making greater use of natural gas in vehicles could provide a broad range of benefits, with fewer drawbacks than some of the alternatives we are pushing now.

In addition to the natural gas-fueled buses that are becoming commonplace in big cities, cars running on compressed natural gas (CNG) are already on the road, including CNG taxis and fleet vehicles. For consumers, Honda sells a natural-gas version of its popular Civic model, which can refuel either at home or at commercial CNG stations, of which there are about 850 nationwide. Although the EPA estimates that the equivalent fuel economy of the Civic GX is about the same as a gasoline-powered four-cylinder Civic, its calculated annual fuel cost comes in $658 lower. Unfortunately, it would take just over ten years to pay out the car's higher sticker price, relative to a comparably-equipped gasoline model. If demand for CNG vehicles took off, their cost premium should come down dramatically, since the technology involved is much less intricate than a hybrid's.

There are good reasons to compare CNG to ethanol. Much of the energy required to produce corn ethanol comes from natural gas, in the form of ammonia-based fertilizer and process heat generation. And unlike corn ethanol, CNG consumes virtually no petroleum in its manufacture or distribution. Even before the latest studies cast doubt on ethanol's greenhouse gas reduction credentials, the emissions from a CNG-powered car looked lower than those of one running on E-85, when viewed on a full "well-to-wheels" basis, coming in at around 25% less than conventional gasoline and even a bit lower than diesel. Emissions of traditional pollutants are low enough to qualify the Honda GX as a partial-zero-emission vehicle under California's strict regulations.

While both fuels face obstacles to wider distribution, CNG's might be easier to overcome. Ethanol's big problem is its incompatibility with pipelines, forcing producers to ship it long distances by rail, before being blended into gasoline at the distribution terminal nearest the retail site. Natural gas has no long-distance pipeline issues, aside from some regional bottlenecks, but faces something of a "last-mile" problem: compressing it and putting it into a retail dispenser. That still looks simpler than digging up tens out thousands of service stations to put in E-85 tanks, because station owners don't wish to forego diesel or unleaded premium sales to add a low-volume new product.

Whenever you add a new category of demand without changing existing supply, prices tend to go up, and that's certainly one risk of shifting some of our transportation energy burden onto natural gas. However, gas used in transportation represents such a tiny fraction of current consumption that it could increase by a factor of ten without causing major ripples. The US still has significant untapped natural gas resources, and global production is rising steadily. The bigger risk is that high oil prices will spill over to natural gas and shrink the latter's cost advantage, which is currently close to a 50% discount on energy content.

CNG isn't a silver bullet, any more than anything else is. However, it's an excellent alternative that's available now. It unambiguously improves greenhouse gas emissions compared to gasoline, and it enhances US energy security by diversifying our energy imports away from OPEC. Given those attributes, it's a mystery why it was virtually ignored in the 2007 Clean Energy Bill.