Surfrider’s CNG Camry Hybrid rolls on 20-inch rims wrapped with Toyo Proxy 4 tires. Ride height has been dropped with an adjustable coil over suspension. The custom front bumper features tweaked grilles, while the rear bumper hides the exhaust system. Dual CNG tanks are mounted under the trunk floor. Toyota tapped Metal Crafters to handle the CNG conversion, with Street Image tackling the cosmetic work.

Steve’s Restorations propane-powered 1956 Ford F-100 pickup drew plenty of attention in SEMA’s Making Green Cool Zone, with an abundance of custom copper work, suicide doors, a slick tilt bed, and dazzling pearl metallic paint. While the 460 cubic inch Ford engine delivers the equivalent of nine miles per gallon or so, it doesn’t use a drop of gasoline. How many big bad hot rods can say that?

With propane prices significantly lower than conventional fuels, propane conversion offers hot rod enthusiasts the opportunity to maintain an investment in existing vehicles and drive trains.

As a nation, we must take a comprehensive and unbiased approach to national transportation/energy policy. We have been given the natural resources to make this happen. It is simply a question of having the will to see it through, without giving into factions and lobbies.

Step 1: Immediate and massive conversion of diesel fleet vehicles to natural gas power (NGV). This will spur employment and lower pollution in communities across the nation. School bus, public transportation, utility, delivery, and courier fleets present a prime opportunity for retrofits and new vehicle sales.

Step 2: Encourage the rapid adoption of highly-efficient clean diesel passenger vehicles. The engines and exhaust treatment systems have been developed. Americans need to be able to buy passenger vehicles with the same fuel-efficient engines that are available in Europe, where diesel market share exceeds 50%.

Step 3: Continue to encourage the development of electric-powered passenger vehicles (PHEVs & EVs). Lets get the battery plants built and bring these cars to market at an affordable cost. This will require massive government subsidies in the short-term, until the cost of production is driven down to a realistic level.

Step 4: Turn up the heat on biofuel development. Ease away from inefficient corn-based ethanol production. Increase algae production efforts.

Step 5: Provide micro-grants to garage entrepreneurs for technology development and installation. Revitalize the auto dealerships that have lost their franchise and get those service departments humming again.

Step 6: Encourage drivers to become more fuel-efficient through technology and technique. You don’t have to drive like Grandma to save a few dollars at the pump each time you fill up. Over the course of a year, the savings can be significant.

Tens of millions of existing pickup trucks could benefit from the conversion to plentiful natural gas or to more fuel-efficient diesel engines. Shuttered automobile dealerships could become conversion centers that reemploy displaced workers and stimulate the economy on Main Street. Existing technology can be bolted into place immediately, without waiting years for development.

Domestically manufactured clean diesel engines and natural gas vehicle (NGV) conversion kits will bring benefit in the near term, as battery-powered conversions come down the line and prices fall.

Cash for Clunkers was just a start. There is much more to do at a local level.

A Recovery Through Retrofit program for Pickup Trucks goes right to the heart of the matter, by providing economic sensibility with an approach that encompasses all technologies, rather than one.

The natural gas powered Civic GX NGV is refilled via a Phill home fueling unit, which is tied to your home’s gas line. While initially targeted at controlled fleets and campus settings, the Civic NGV is available to individuals in select areas. Alas, it’s not for everyone. Finding an authorized Honda NGV dealer in your area may pose a significant hurdle.

It’s important to note that the Civic NGV is not a conversion, nor is it imported from overseas. In this video report shot at the 2008 Alternative Fuels and Vehicles conference, Honda representative Annabel Cook explains that the Civic NGV it is built from the ground up as a natural-gas powered vehicle at Honda’s production facility in Ohio.

With the aid of a gracious Toyota rep, we crawled all over the CNG Yaris to bring back this video for your viewing pleasure. Highlights include the under mirror door popper buttons, power clam shell, hidden CNG tank, low key CNG dash button control, Rotora brakes, and gargantuan DPE rims clad in Nitto rubber.

When you actually look at the numbers, you’ll see that whatever oil America has untapped is but a tiny fraction of what we will ultimately need. Yes, we should increase domestic production, but only on shore. In order to quickly create jobs and energy independence, America’s focus must be on renewable sources.

The Internet revolution created a wealth of capital that is now being put to good use. I’ve had the good fortune to be in the room with many brilliant people that are working hard to make this change.

The electric utilities have enough capacity in the grid at present to recharge a growing fleet of electric cars — at night, when there is an over capacity. As the fleet increases in size, of course, we’ll need to upgrade the grid and bring on additional power sources.

That’s one of the big reasons I’m down with the Pickens Plan. We need to ramp up the production of wind power as quickly as possible to free up natural gas for use in transportation. Natural gas can be quickly and easily retrofitted into a wide range of vehicles, from city buses to F-150s, to Ford Mustangs.

While I have never advocated corn ethanol, I am a big advocate of biodiesel. Biodiesel needn’t come from a food stock. In all likelihood, our biodiesel needs will be met by distributed infrastructure of algae fuel production, in facilities that definine clean green carbon-neutral energy. Algae biodiesel plants can be built quickly and the fuel can be be delivered to the existing network of service stations without the need to build costly pipelines that might take years to construct.

In less then ten years, at least half the vehicles sold in the United States of America can be either clean diesel or electric powered, in some form, for one simple reason … the manufacturers that choose not to produce these fuel efficient vehicles will find that their market has passed them by.

We are seeing the first results of this sea change, right now. Things can, and will, change more rapidly then most folks would have ever considered.

When a company comes seemingly out of the blue in 2009 or 2010 with a technology that changes the game, it may come as a surprise to many. It won’t come as a surprise to me. Every major auto manufacturer will have an electric vehicle on the road in 2009, with real availability coming in 2010. Chrysler’s electric car announcement last week was only a harbinger of what’s to come.

This is not rocket science. It’s a question of having sufficient battery production to dramatically lower costs.

How about whoa!

In one of the coolest displays of real-world hot-rodding on display at the Alternative Fuels and Vehicles 2008 conference, the crew at Santa Ana, CA-based IMPCO proudly displayed their one-off conversion for the 4.6 liter V-8 in their screaming red ‘Stang.

IMPCO’s propane pony car is duel-fuel, starting on gasoline and switching over to propane when the engine warms up, switching back to gasoline when necessary.

The conversion uses a sequential common rail vapor injection system along with a slave ECU that is transparent to the OEM ECU.

Propane-powered vehicles are enjoying a remarkable resurgence in select geographic areas. With natural gas selling for the equivalent of 63.8 cents per gallon in Utah, the state is seeing a rush of interest in conversions.

The best snow on earth and remarkably inexpensive fuel … that’s a tough combo to beat …