Carbonless Copy: car insurance

Friday, March 13, 2009

Pay As You Drive

Remember my post a few weeks ago on car insurance that costs less if you drive less? Turns out several companies are offering it around the nation. The Environmental Defense Fund offers a good overview here. The Brookings Institution reported that if all American drivers had pay-as-you-drive insurance, we'd drive 8 percent less, total US CO2 emissions would go down by 2% and oil consumption by 4%, and two-thirds of households would pay an average of $270 less per car for auto insurance. Here are the programs I found:

Owners of GM cars with OnStar can get discounts for driving less through insurer GMAC in 47 out of 50 states. Click here for info.
Progressive offers pay-as-you-drive discounts in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and Oregon.
Texas is the first state to offer insurance that's charged per mile you drive, allowing you to get the full benefit of driving less, through MileMeter. Go, neighbor!
In Massachusetts, the Environmental Insurance Agency offers a policy through Plymouth Rock that rewards you for driving less. EIA is owned by the Conservation Law Foundation, which has spent decades protecting the environment in New England.
The Federal Highway Administrations Value Pricing Program is launching a PAYD pilot program in Georgia.

Post your experiences with any PAYD program, or any other global warming solutions!

Stay cool,
Bonney

Friday, February 6, 2009

I'd love to hear your ideas for reducing your carbon footprint. Here's an idea from Washington State: get your state senator or rep to introduce legislation that allows car insurance companies to charge people based on how many miles they drive. That would provide an incentive to people to reduce their carbon impact by charging less for insurance for those who drive fewer miles. Read more about it here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008713468_greeninsurance06m.html. (BTW, the article features my sister Polly. Read it for inspiration!) It does raise some privacy concerns. Would you be willing to have the number of miles you drive monitored in order to save money on insurance and provide extra motivation for driving less? I would.

10 Things We Can Do to Reduce Global Warming

1) Buy energy-efficient appliances. Look for the Energy Star label. Refrigerators consume most electricity of any home applicance. Today's refrigerators consume less than one-fourth the energy of 30 years ago. If your fridge is more than 10 years old, you could save a lot of money and reduce global warming by buying a new one. Some utility companies will buy your old, working fridge.
2) Set your thermostat 2 degrees lower in winter and two degrees higher in summer to save about 2,000 pounds of CO2 per year.
3) Wrap insulation around your water heater to save 1,000 pounds of CO2 a year. Or install a tankless water heater, which instantly heats water when needed, can save 50% on utilities, and can get you a $300 federal tax credit.
4) Get your car's engine tuned up and keep tires inflated -- both help fuel efficiency. We just pumped up our tires and gained 2-3 miles per gallon. A new air filter could get you 10 percent more miles per gallon.
5) Contact elected officials and ask them to pass laws requiring higher gas mileage and cleaner emissions from cars, cleaner power plants, energy efficient buildings and more.
6) Sign up for an alternative power program if one is offered in your area. In New Mexico, PNM's Sky Blue can provide up to 90% of your household electricity from wind power for a small monthly fee.
7) Drive less. Take the bus or ride a bike. Combine errands to take fewer trips.
8) If you buy a car, pick the least-polluting, most fuel-efficient vehicle you can. A car that gets 20 miles per gallon will emit about 50 tons of CO2 over its lifetime. A car that gets 40 mpg will emit half that much and save you roughly $3,000 in fuel costs.
9) Replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. A CF bulb will lower your energy bills by $15 a year and more than $60 over its life and will keep half a ton of CO2 out of the air. Compact fluorescents last 10 times as long as incandescents, too.
10) Offset CO2 emissions generated when you fly with programs like TerraPass or others below.

Carbonless Copy

Friday, March 13, 2009

Pay As You Drive

Friday, February 6, 2009

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