E-Van back at NMTCC, Jenny forgets her camera

Sunday April 27th was the 40th anniversary celebration of North Montco Technical Career Center, and I'd promised to bring the e-van down to display for alumni and visitors. I finally got a poster made up with some quick facts about oil and electric vehicles to share, and -- just as we'd envisioned in the conversion class -- covered the motorwell with plexiglas so that viewers can look through. I successfully labeled the major parts of the system, though I blush to admit that I had to ask Bill what one little gray box was (vacuum pump regulator). Thanks to Marty F for trash-picking a piece of plexiglas just the right size to cover a Vanagon engine hatch!

I couldn't hang out for long at the event but it was lovely to catch up with Bill a bit. Wish I'd had time to see Larry Dyer as well. Going back through blog photos to make a little collage of the class brought me back to the excitement and thrills of last summer's down-to-the-wire conversion effort.

Since this is an embarrassingly substance-less post without photographs of the e-van (decked out by Bill with some promotional flyers for the Plug-In Partners national campaign for PHEVs), I'll also share this link to an interesting autobloggreen piece about the latest revision to the CAFE rules, a perverse shift in methodology that may have the effect of encouraging automakers to produce larger cars. Isn't it odd how our regulatory efforts in this country always seem to end up promoting business as usual, instead of the reform they pretend to offer?

Bill reports that he's helping a group over at Methacton High School get going on a biodiesel project. There's a hint for you as to what Bucks County Renewables might get up to during the 2008-09 school year, in addition to offering another conversion workshop in the summer of 2009. I'll keep you posted!