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Learn About Hybrid Cars at UWRF

MARCH 2, 2009 - Learn everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about alternative fuel vehicles from hybrid guru Chris Schneider at a seminar in the Eau Galle River Room in the University Center at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls on Tuesday, March 10 from noon to 2 pm. The event, cosponsored by the UWRF St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development, is free and open to the public.

Schneider will present a short video about alternative fuel vehicles, and facilitate a question-and-answer forum with several experts in electric and natural gas technologies. A natural gas vehicle (NGV) will be on display, as well as a neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV).

Schneider is a University of Notre Dame graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. An expert on hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles, he has toured the Midwest and appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio advocating the benefits of choosing transportation that will have the least impact on the environment and help build a new American energy future.

According to Schneider, every gallon of gasoline a vehicle burns puts 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and the Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that by choosing a vehicle that achieves 25 miles per gallon rather than 20 MPG prevents the release of about 15 tons of greenhouse gas pollution over the lifetime of the vehicle.

Petroleum imports cost Americans about $2 billion a week. If everyone drove cars that were 30 percent more efficient, it would reduce the cost by $600 million a week, says Schneider, who is an advocate of T. Boone Pickens' Plan for Energy Independence.

The plan contends that America's economy, environment and national security all hinge on its dependency on foreign oil. America is home to the world's greatest wind power corridor and has abundant reserves of natural gas as well as renewable methods of production. Pickens' plan encourages the use of wind and solar energy to displace the use of natural gas in homes and businesses, says Schneider, and this would free up clean natural gas to fuel the country's vehicles.

For more information on the presentation or to schedule an interview with Chris Schneider, please call Tom Schee at (608) 784-6440 or email Chris at chris-hybridguru@centurytel.net . Further information available on www.hope3.org and click on the Early Earth Day Odyssey.

The St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development supports and facilitates the goal of UWRF to become one of the premier venues for deliberation and demonstration of sustainable community development principles. The SCISCD fosters UWRF's commitment to place-based, multidisciplinary inquiry, solutions and leadership for creating an inter-generational and regionally self-sufficient community, says SCISCD director Kelly Cain.

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