Car sales may be down, but people who are looking for a new ride would do well to consider diesel and hybrid vehicles if they want a lower cost of ownership in the long-term. IntelliChoice.com has released its fourth annual survey of eco-friendly vehicles and has found that standard gasoline cars, while often less expensive up front, just aren’t a good deal when compared to clean diesels and hybrids. IntelliChoice looked at 2009 model year diesels and hybrids and found that, after five years... 

The United States imported about 58% of the petroleum, which includes crude oil and refined petroleum products, that we consumed during 2007. About half of these imports came from the Western Hemisphere. Our dependence on foreign petroleum is expected to decline in the next two decades.  The United States consumed 20.7 million barrels per day (MMbd) of petroleum products during 2007 making us the world’s largest petroleum consumer. The United States was third in crude oil production... 

Renewable energy consumption decreased by about 1% between 2006 and 2007, contributing 7% of the Nation’s total energy demand, and 8.4% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2007. Most Renewable Energy Goes to Producing Electricity Electricity producers consumed 51% of total U.S. renewable energy in 2007 for producing electricity. Most of the remaining 49% of renewable energy was biomass consumed for industrial applications (principally paper-making) by plants producing only heat and steam....