Recently, President Obama released a new directive regarding improvements in fuel efficient technologies and standards.  We’re all extremely excited about this news, which was published on May 21, 2010.  The full version of the notice can be viewed here on the White House’s official website.

President Obama has announced that his administration will push to help develop and improve infrastructure needed to improve fuel efficiency, thereby reducing our dependence on fossil fuels as well as reducing our carbon footprint.  The President has also explained the need for a reduction in the greenhouse gases emitted from passenger vehicles and a new generation of fuel efficient vehicles.

This last point is a goal we are also driving towards and which our success will help achieve.

With the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there is an even greater need now to reduce and soon halt offshore drilling.  We appreciate the President’s support of alternative fuel research and proposition to overhaul the standards for new vehicles.

Traditionally, only about 15% of the fuel you put into your car is used for powering the vehicle and the rest of its useful functions, with the remaining 85% being lost to engine and driveline inefficiencies and during idling.  However, new models rolling out into the showrooms and onto the highway are making use of new technologies to improve fuel efficiency.

The U.S. Department of Energy has posted a handy chart on their website which you can view here that explains the different types of energy and transmission technologies in use today and each modification’s average efficiency increase.

We’re doing our best and pushing our limits even further now that the shakedown has already started.  Despite a few setbacks, we remain confident and focused.  It is such an exhilarating feeling that we have reached this point already and have only a few months more to go.

The prizes will be awarded in September, and should we be the recipients, the prize money would go straight to Cornell University.  The details on how the money would be split within the university are still unclear, however every penny will assuredly be passed on to our university.