I don't know how long it's been live, but Yahoo! has added a green center to their autos page. They have reviews and ratings of alternative fuel vehicles and articles explaining different technologies. They've also set up some discussion groups dedicated to alternative fuels and vehicles. It's not hugely original, but it does a decent job of aggregating some of the information that you can find scattered around various sites on the web. For green noobies looking to buy a hybrid, diesel, or CNG vehicle it's not a bad place to start.

[Source Yahoo! Autos with a tip from C. Nichols]

If only we could put everything on a linear scale, it would be so much easier to see if one thing is better or worse than another. Yahoo! teamed up with Environmental Defense to do just that for the "greenness" of automobiles. It's a similar concept to J.D. Power and Associates' Automotive Environmental Index, however, Yahoo! and Environmental Defense chose to use a 0 to 100 point system in which the higher the rating, the greener the car and they're posting it on Yahoo's automotive website built for consumers.

Environmental Defense doesn't reveal the algorithm used to generate the ratings, but Yahoo! explains that the goal is to reflect a vehicle's "total environmental impact" by juding them according to fuel economy, emissions standards and curb weight.

The pollutants covered in the rating include greenhouse gases, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. So which is worse? Spewing carbon dioxide or particulate matter? Unfortunately, Yahoo! doesn't get detailed in their explanation of the Green Ratings. What's interesting is that they claim the ratings retain the same scale throughout the spectrum. That is, they say that the savings of the 3 points between 40 and 43 cuts down on the same amount of pollution as the 3-point gain between 60 and 63.

They've also taken up all the slack given to flex-fuel vehicles as each car's Green Rating is based solely on its use of "the commonly available motor fuel (gasoline or diesel)" unless it was specifically designed to use a different fuel such as natural gas. The site doesn't totally shun ethanol as there's a link for it under the "Technology" tab, however, none of the cars were rated with it. The same holds true for vehicles capable of running biodiesel. Their ratings are based on petroleum diesel fuel.

Check out the top 100 cars by their Green Rating by clicking here. Number 1 isn't the Prius. It's the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. If you're curious why the 2006 Civic Hybrid beat out the 2007 Civic Hybrid, the answer may be as simple as the vehicles' respective weights. The 2007 version tipped the scales by six more pounds than its predecessor. The highest ranking SUV is the 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid (front-wheel drive) which came in at 9 on the list. The Toyota Camry Hybrid was just above the Escape at number 8 while the Honda Accord Hybrid managed just 31st. Oh, and sports car fans will be happy to see the Lotus Elise listed at number 55 and the highest ranked Miata at 57.

When you get a chance, check out Yahoo's green autos page at http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/ and tell us what you think.

[Source: Environmental Defense]

For the last three years, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transporation have ranked 20 companies that they feel offer the best benefits for commuters and for three years Intel has come out on top. Why shouldn't they? They offer their employees vanpools, subsidies for public transportation, showers and storage for those who bike or run and even a dry-cleaner to lessen the demand for driving. And what if you could measure your commute times in milliseconds? In 2005, a whopping 40 percent of their employees got to work via the Internet.

According to Reuters, the ranking is part of a federal government effort to reduce traffic congestion and auto emissions by eliminating the American habit of driving to work alone.

You can view the full list after the jump. See if you can find the patterns. Reuters was kind enough to point out that almost all are technology companies and only eight are in states that do not touch the Pacific Ocean. Oh, and don't immediately fret if your company didn't make the cut. The ranking was only open to 133 firms with at least 700,000 employees.

[Source: Reuters via MSNBC]

Yahoo! has a video of the Tesla Roadster in action on their Driver Buzz segment. If you haven't seen AutoblogGreen's video of the Tesla in motion, this is a pretty cool video. In fact, the video was taken at the same event AutoblogGreen editor Sebastian Blanco attended in July (you can see his elbow about 2:45 into the video). The encoding quality of the video is pretty low, but this is a very cool car. The Lotus Elise has always been one of my favorite cars since it's introduction. If I had $100,000 to drop on a car the Elise-based Tesla would definitely be near the top of my list. Unfortunately, for those of here at AutoblogGreen the initial run is small enough and they are getting enough free publicity that they probably won't be delivering one to our garage anytime soon. Follow the Read link to see the video.

[Source: Yahoo]