chopperChris Ravana glides out of his shop, Blindspot Cycles in Fort Collins, on “El Chopper,” a retrofitted, 1986 Honda Rebel 250 that doesn’t require fuel and emits no pollution. The bike runs on 48 volts of batteries and is just one of the many vintage bikes Ravana rebuilds for commuters looking to cut their gas bills to zero. The bikes, some of which have a range of 60 miles and travel at speeds up to 80 miles per hour, are recharged simply by plugging into an adapter. “I don’t like killing bikes. I want to keep bikes on the road,” Ravana tells the Coloradoan. “I’m trying to keep the bikes as realistic as possible.” As Ravana churns out a steady line of clean bikes, oilman T. Boone Pickens has joined with Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, to argue that an increase in natural-gas vehicles would help cut U.S. reliance on oil imports (via The Salt Lake Tribune). Back in Colorado, Governor Bill Ritter, speaking earlier this week to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas conference in Denver, says efforts in the state to build a new energy economy can provide a model for addressing climate change (via The Associated Press).