If you’re an avid cyclist or you just ride your bike for fun with the kids, biking is healthy for you and the environment.  And more people are looking at their bike as their commuting vehicle of choice.

RTC’s Viva Bike Vegas is returning this weekend to encourage Southern Nevadans to get out on the open roads to enjoy and help preserve the beautiful desert scenery.  The Saturday morning event will offer a 35-mile, 62-mile and 118-mile route for riders.  Cyclists will take off from the Regional Transportation  Commission’s office at 600 S. Grand Central Pkwy. (across from the Factory Outlet Stores).  Other family members can hang back and let the kids ride in the kids’ bike rodeo.  Lunch will be available for purchase, but the sunshine will be free of charge.  You can register at the RTC’s website.  While there, check out the plans for a new bike transfer station downtown where you can ride in, park and lock your bike, and even take a shower before heading off to work.  A bike repair shop will be on site, too for those flat-tire troubles and other necessities to keep you safe on the road.  Ride on RTC!

Gas prices are on the rise again.  If you’re tired of paying high prices for air-polluting gasoline to run your car, then alternative fuels may be looking more and more attractive and they’re picking up speed.  First, the electric scooter… then the hybrids… now the Smart Car… and eventually cars that run on vegetable oil? 

The Regional Transportation Commission is testing the “grease bus” - a bus that runs on low-sulphur diesel and about 15%-20% used, but clean vegetable oil.  Right now the bus is being used to train new drivers, but it will be monitored for it’s eco-worthiness over the next year or so to see just how much emissions can be spared from the air and what kind of mileage it will get.  The anticipation for vehicles that run partly on veggie oil is 100 miles to the gallon.  Wow.  I’ll take that any day.  Tracy Bower with the RTC, says they’re concerned about sustainability, so the RTC is also running nearly 60 hybrid-electric coaches, ten rapid transit hybrid-electric vehicles and 50 Compressed Natural Gas buses.  It looks like they really give a toot and are trying not to pollute. 

Electric vehicles have been around for awhile now, but how about electric go-karts?  An indoor kart raceway called, “Pole Position” races only electric karts on their indoor track.  Bryan Kroten says these state of the art Formula karts accelerate harder, smoother and are much quieter than gas-powered machines.  I’m told they can rip at 45mph hour and be as quiet as a sewing machine.  Not to mention, they’re a lot cleaner than gas-powered karts and that’s at the top of the list of payoffs.  Check out their indoor track over at W. Flamingo and Arville.

If you’d like to see some of these alternatively-fueled vehicles for yourself, they’ll be making an appearance this week at First Friday downtown.  The Green Outlet at the Arts Factory is featuring alternative fuels at this month’s First Friday (check out www.goinggreen.com)  and they will have plenty of information on the topic.  Other featured alternative transportation solutions include hybrid vehicles, flex fuel vehicles, electric Karts from Pole Position, a Smart car, bicycles and electric scooters.  The RTC will also have info on their Ride Share program which includes express bus routes and carpooling solutions to saving money and saving the air.  There will also be a preview Thursday night from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m.  And First Friday starts at 6:00 on Friday… hence the name.

If all goes as planned, the Chevy Volt will be the first plug-in hybrid to hit the market in 2010.

Here in Las Vegas, the average price per gallon is $3.67. That price has many people looking to the future to see what alternative may be available.

There are some choices out there already to ease the burden of high gas prices. Here at Channel 8, we made the decision to buy hybrid vehicles. One is a mixture of gas and electric.

It is an SUV that get 34 miles to the gallon in the city. It’s is a Ford product, but every major manufacturer has their own answer.

Like a symphony of odd colors, the cars represent a chorus of change in the auto industry. Not one of them runs solely on gasoline. General Motors banked their future on their hydrogen engine. (more…)

One message rang clear at the Clean Energy Summit Tuesday — renewable energy equals jobs. The two-day event at UNLV is the first of its kind to bring together political leaders, business leaders and renewable energy experts.

When you say renewable energy, think solar, wind or geothermal power — and Nevada has all three. The summit is meant to show how it will make a big difference.

Nevada Senator Harry Reid put together the summit in combination with UNLV. “There’s no better place for this summit than in Nevada — the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy,” he said.

SLIDESHOW: Check out photos from inside the energy summit

There were predictions from billionaire T. Boone Pickens, “We are getting very close to a disaster.” He says importing 70-percent of our oil from overseas leaves us reliant on other countries and vulnerable.

(more…)