Coincidentally, no sooner had I learned about the popularity of hybrid technology in hybrid buses than I read in the newspaper that a local municipality was unveiling its brand new hybrid bus at a ribbon-cutting yesterday. So I ran over and took some pictures of the bus and its guts. I assumed that since Maxwell Technologies had only recently introduced its new HTM 390 ultracap aimed at the industrial/transportation market that this hybrid would be of the old-style lead acid battery type, but no. …

Los Angeles County government, Southern California’s largest employer, may soon join a burgeoning trend that entices workers to give up their gas-guzzling cars for more environmentally friendly ones. Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors asked its staff to come up with ways to encourage the county’s 90,000 commuting employees — about 90% of the workforce — to buy and drive so-called green cars, such as hybrids partly fueled by electricity or other high mileage, low emission vehicles. Some hybrids get up to 50 miles per gallon. …