The rules for the competition have been recently posted, and the goal is to get better fuel economy. Entries can run on biodiesel, ethanol, or, in the zero-emissions category, on electricity. The snowmobiles will be rated in categories like emissions, noise, and acceleration.The idea is to make internal combustion snowmobiles suitable for use in fragile natural areas, like in national parks. The quieter and cleaner a machine is, the less it will disturb both plant and animal life.

The goal for the zero-emissions category is even more specific: make a snowmobile that won’t skew the research being done at Summit Station in Greenland. Scientists there are working to understand the absorption of atmospheric gases by the ice cap, and any emissions from fossil fuels burned at the site can mess up the results of their measurements.

Can we expect to see any of these in the local Sno-Cat dealership? Probably. The SAE seems to expect that the biodiesel and ethanol versions would be pretty cheap to build for retail sale, and that they’d do pretty well on the showroom floor. Hybrids aren’t allowed in this competition for just that reason — the system is too expensive to be worth it for manufacturers or buyers at this point.

GreenHouse energy installed the first of its Microfueler backyard ethanol makers in Los Angeles, and a slew of green-minded stars attended the installation, including GreenHouse investor Shaquille O’Neal. (Imagine the size of his carbon footprint. Size 23, according to Wikipedia.)

The Microfueler uses spent beer yeast, algae, or cellulose (but not from corn) to produce organic ethanol, or E100, that can be pumped directly from the unit to your gas tank.The system can make up to 70 gallons of fuel a week, and you can hook four of these babies together, if you’re so inclined, to make 280 gallons a week and service a fleet.

The Microfueler is available nationwide for $9,995 — less a federal tax incentive, which brings it to under $5,000. Some states have rebates on top of that, and carbon credit coupons can be used, too. If you live in SoCal or Arizona, GreenHouse will deliver the raw materials to your house (an Internet connection tells them when you’re low) for $2 a gallon of end-product ethanol. Why yes, that is cheaper than gasoline! And greener, too.

Here’s how it all breaks down:

• The average fuel economy of the manufacturers’ car and light truck fleets will increase by 5% every year beginning in 2012 and ending in 2016
• Cars must average 39 mpg; light trucks and SUVs must average 30 mpg by 2016
• Overall average will be 35.5; current overall average is 25 mpg
• Will go hand-in-hand with EPA initiative to reduce tailpipe CO2 emissions by 40%

What’s not known is how extended-range electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt or hydrogen cars like the Honda Clarity will figure into the calculations. The feds say they’re working on it.

If you’d like this information in a live, five-minute video starring yours truly, check out Portland’s KGW NewsChannel 8.

Halvorsen has no intention of busting down garage doors in the middle of the night to take away gasoline cars. The new rules, if enacted, would apply only to new cars sold in 2015 or after. Her idea is to push car companies to make cleaner-running cars, not to wreck the Norwegian economy–even though Norway is the sixth largest oil exporter in the world, according to Reuters. On the other hand, Norway is home to electric-car upstart Think.

The American Le Mans Series will revive its Green X Challenge Award with Michelin tires as the sponsor for 2009. The prototype and GT cars that acheives the best performance and fuel efficiency with the fewest emissions will win the award.

Lest you doubters think Michelin is jumping on the green bandwagon, they’ve been rewarding eco-friendly innovations for a while now. Eleven years ago, they created the Challenge Bibendum for clean vehicles, then in 2006 sponsored the Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. In 2008, it extended the Energy Endurance Challenge to all European Le Mans-series races.

For its part, ALMS has been making the most inroads into green racing, with hybrid, biofuel, and clean diesels at the starting line. ALMS President and CEO Scott Atherton has applauded President Barack Obama’s green auto initiatives, and sees the track as a proving ground for new consumer technologies.

Racing will probably never be as clean a sport as, say, competitive tree planting, but initiatives like the Michelin’s Green X Challenge can help sate our need for speed and our preference for breathing cleaner air.

Photo of the E85-powered Corvette at the last ALMS race of 2008 courtesy of American Le Mans.

The Bentley Continental Supersports edition will debut at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show in March. And though it’s the fastest, most bad-ass Bentley ever built, it’s laying claims to green fame as well. The Continental Supersports will be a FlexFuel vehicle.

As part of Bentley’s commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 15% across the range of its cars, the Continental Supersports will be able to run on E85, gasoline, or a combination of the two. The company claims that this reduces “well-to-wheel” emissions by 70%. (By well-to-wheel, they mean from the moment the fuel is sourced to its refinement and delivery to when it burns in the combustion engine and releases emissions from the tailpipe.)

Bentley is basing its green claims on the hope that second-generation biofuels from 100% renewable sources like crop waste will become widely available by the time the Continental Supersports concept becomes a real, live car.

And, you know, it’s got a W12 engine that kicks out 621 bhp and has a 204-mph top speed. If you’re into that kind of thing.

GM: To emphasize the company’s commitment to greener powertrain technology, the Volt led the GM parade. The much-hyped range-extended electric vehicle should be market-ready by the end of 2010. The Chevy Beat microcar concept will be produced worldwide as the Chevy Spark in 2011. The surprise of the conference was the all-electric Cadillac Converj concept (nice spelling, eh?) It’s based on the Voltech system, as the company is calling it, and should have a 40-mile range.

Lexus: Toyota’s luxury arm debuted a dedicated hybrid, the HS 250 h. The “entry-level luxury vehicle” has plant-based eco-plastics, according to Lexus, throughout the interior, which is 30% recyclable. The car overall is 85% recyclable, including the batteries. It’ll be on sale in late summer 2009, but no price was announced yet.

Ford: Ford was all about its new EcoBoost engine, which is an option for the Flex right now and will be available on 90% of Ford vehicles by 2013. Bill Ford Jr. announced plans to bring four new high-mileage battery vehicles to the market by 2012, declaring it “not a test program,” but a business strategy.

Chrysler: Chrysler execs were grateful for the government bailout and weren’t afraid to show it. They brought their GEM low-power electric vehicles, plus the three ENVI electric prototypes they debuted in 2008. They also brought the new Patriot EV (the second Jeep to get the EV treatment) and the Chrysler 200c EV concept, which is packed with more hi-tech bits than an iPhone.

Bentley: The high-luxury car maker made available its corporate plans to move to flex fuels in its massive sedans and convertibles. It also announced a new biofuel car that would debut in Geneva this March. Oh, and they brought champagne. Yum.

Mini: Mini brought its E electric car and talked about its program to get a fleet of 500 test cars in Los Angeles and New York City, and it debuted a new convertible that is more fuel efficient and emits less carbon dioxide than the previous model.

That’s all for now. More press conferences tomorrow, including a new plug-in hybrid sports car concept from Fisker.

If you’ve been considering an alternative-fuel vehicle for your next car but were wondering where on earth to fill up, look no further than the U.S. Department of Energy. That’s right — the DoE has put together a handy web site where you can search for refueling stations for just about any kind of fuel except regular, ol’ gasoline:

• Biodiesel (B20 and above)
• Compressed Natural Gas
• Electric
• Ethanol (E85)
• Hydrogen
• Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
• Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Propane)

It should surprise no one that California leads the way in most types of alternative fuel stations. E85 is huge in the Midwest, which is another no-brainer, but biodiesel is big in Georgia and the Carolinas, which I did not know. Texas has hundreds of propane filling stations, as anyone who watches “King of the Hill” would probably guess.

There is a ton of information on the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center, and it will be a valuable resource as more alternative-fueled cars come to market in the next four years or so. Bookmark it now, folks, and tell all your friends who love green cars.

This month Interstate 65, which runs from Gary, Indiana, to Mobile, Alabama, become America’s first biofuels corridor, with help from the U.S. Energy Department, General Motors, and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. What does a biofuels corridor mean for drivers? It means that there are dozens of stations along I-65 offering E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) or B20 (20% biodiesel, 80% regular diesel), each spaced no more than a quarter tank apart.

The idea is less romantic than Route 66, but far more practical and forward-thinking. The route covers four states: Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Seems like the perfect place to try out your new $2.4-million Koenigsegg CCXR supercar, which runs on E85. It could do this route from stem to stern in a cool three and a half hours.

Photo by peggydavis66.

As a hypothetical demonstration, I’ll use my little red GMC pickup truck. The picture of this particular conversion kit looks intimidating: a box with a lengths of “plug and play” connectors coiled around it. It’s available for less than $400, though, which seems like a bargain. (They also have kits for the likes of your 12-cylinder Ferraris and Aston Martins for about $700.)

Like most other alternative-fuel web sites, there’s a carbon footprint calculator, which tells me that I’m emitting nearly 5,000 pounds of CO2 annually (the EPA estimator says I’m putting out more like 6,000 pounds. Either way, it’s not great). By using an E85 converter from Drive Flex Fuel, though, I could reduce my annual CO2 emissions by more than a ton. Intriguing.

Where to gas up, though? Using the zip code where my little red truck lives in Portland, Oregon, Drive Flex Fuel came up with eight locations within 50 miles. Two of these, though, were for government vehicles only, and a few seemed to be for commercial vehicles, not passenger vehicles.

This seems like a project for experienced home mechanics only — not a DIY weekend deal, unless you’re converting a non-essential car just for kicks. But if you’ve got the greasemonkey chops and want to green your ride, this seems like a relatively inexpensive and easy way to do it.