Ipswich festival shows off green vehicles - The Boston Globe

At Ipswich festival, a grass-roots group of locals will show off all kinds of ways to cut fuel costs
By Kay Lazar, Globe Correspondent July 27, 2006
For those wincing over gas prices these days, Ipswich is touting a summer festival that may be just the right balm for sticker-shocked souls.

This Saturday's event features newly designed cars that can go 300 (yes 300) miles per gallon alongside contraptions that will allow drivers to brew their own biodiesel fuel. The five-hour fest has some big-name sponsors but was organized by a grass-roots group of green-minded locals who hope to create more converts.
``We don't want people who drive gas hogs to think they shouldn't come to the festival," said William ``Web" Bingham , chairman of the Green Car and Transportation Festival . ``If they can just learn to drive a little better, they can get a 15 to 20 percent increase in miles to the gallon."
Bingham, 52, crossed over to the green side four years ago when his wife bought a hybrid gas/electric car.
``When I started driving it, I had this wonderful feeling that I was doing something for the environment," said Bingham, a corporate real estate adviser. ``It was infectious, and now I am sort of evangelical about it."
The exhibits, demonstrations, live music, and panel discussions on global warming, solar energy, and more will be held in and around Town Hall, which is -- where else? -- on Green Street.
Leaving no doubt that a community better known for its clams than its cars is solidly behind the bash, Town Manager Robert Markel -- also a proud hybrid owner -- will be leading off the day's ``Miles per Gallon Challenge." Organizers say the 24-mile challenge will let hybrid owners pit their cars' fuel efficiency against others. Entrance is free, preregistration is required, and the prize is bragging rights to the owner whose car uses the least gas to go the distance.
What started last summer as a group of citizens banding together to build a town-owned, wind-generated electric turbine has morphed into a more ambitious drive to bring all sorts of renewable energy projects, including solar and biodiesel, to this community of 13,000. The Ipswich Citizens Advocating Renewable Energy -- ICARE-- includes members who are, well, still green when it comes to renewable energy.
``We drive a 1997 SUV with no air conditioning. It's an old car, and we are interested in finding the best possible car for the future," said an ICARE member, Heidi Paek, 36, an Ipswich mother of two. ``We are sort of like the consumer that has not done it the right way so far, and we want to do it right in the next couple of years."
Ipswich's green fest comes as gas prices nationwide are at an all-time high, averaging $3.01 for self-serve regular, according to the latest Lundberg Survey. And Monday's survey from AAA Southern New England found even higher average prices in Massachusetts, at $3.02. Underscoring the importance of those findings is a new report from the US Environmental Protection Agency that shows overall fuel efficiency among America's cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks declining over the past two decades. These vehicles, the report said, account for approximately 40 percent of all US oil consumption -- much of it imported oil -- and 20 percent of all US carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is a key pollutant linked to global warming.Continued...
Festival organizers say their aim is educational. However, the event also includes several consumer-oriented components, including exhibits and opportunities to test drive the latest hybrid cars, presented by festival sponsors Toyota, Honda, and Ford. Other highlights include the first public showing of cars being designed and built this summer by students at MIT. The cars, created to go at least 300 miles per gallon , are powered by a variety of substances, including hydrogen fuel cells, biofuels, and solar energy. One of the cars, known as an ``assisted human-powered vehicle," or AHPV, is a three-wheeled contraption that resembles a bike in a fiberglass shell. It combines old fashioned pedaling power by humans with solar cell capacity for an extra boost.
Local exhibitors include Ipswich's own ``hyper-miler" Mark Avenmarg, 48, a natural foods store owner who says he has squeezed 100 miles per gallon out of his 2002 Honda Insight. Avenmarg is slated to share his hyper-miling secrets in a presentation entitled, ``You Don't Have to Drive a Hybrid to be Green."
``By consciously driving carefully, you can make a big difference," Avenmarg said.
A classic hyper-miling tip?
``If there's a traffic light, I try to make sure I can coast all the way to it," he said. ``I have been passed while coasting to a light. People go around me, curse, and make an obscene gesture. They are not thinking."
Bill Graham, 63, one of Ipswich's ``biodiesel boys," will also be demonstrating his expertise. Graham, a retired photography professor, makes his own brew from left-over fryer oil compliments of a local restaurant. He uses it in his 2003 diesel engine VW Golf and averages 45 to 55 miles per gallon.
``My wife says it smells like fried chicken," Graham said.
In three hours, he makes enough fuel to last two weeks , and he figures it costs him about 60 cents per gallon.
While Boston boasts the AltWheels Festival, a well-known fall venue for the latest in environmentally friendly transportation, Ipswich's green debut is impressive for such a small community, said KeySpan's Mike Manning.
He said Ipswich is the only community he knows of that is having its own green vehicle event.
KeySpan, which is a sponsor for both the Boston and Ipswich events, is slated to show a home refueling station in Ipswich. Called the Phill, it is designed for cars that are powered by compressed natural gas. The Phill, a 30-inch -high, 14-inch-wide appliance that can be mounted on a homeowner's garage wall, is slated to hit the Greater Boston market next year. The device will allow natural gas customers who drive compressed gas cars to ``phill" up their vehicles at home, Manning said.
While the focus this weekend is on fuel efficiency for cars, town leaders have been busy this summer boosting energy efficiency in the community's schools. A thermal scan of the buildings last winter pinpointed areas where heat was escaping. An expert was hired last week to design systems that correct those problems by improving energy and heat efficiency in the new middle and high school. A separate $80,000 federal grant is being used to replace old elementary-school lighting with energy-efficient fixtures.
Similarly, Ipswich's festival organizers say they hope to expand their energy horizons , perhaps incorporating some green stuff that is not necessarily transportation-oriented.
Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com.
NorthTalk
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