The AAA blasts dangerous hypermiling techniques; the WSJ wonders about the true purpose of the Chevy Volt; and here’s to greener July 4th fireworks.

Sensible AAA recomments not trying “dangerous fuel-saving techniques”: The AAA wants hypermilers to get a grip before someone gets hurt. Hypermiling is a term used to describe unorthodox driving techniques intended to squeeze radical fuel efficiency out of conventional vehicles. An example of hypermiling might be shutting down a car engine while coasting, or attempting to stay in the slipstream of a larger vehicle during highway driving. But the AAA points out that some hypermiling tactics compromise safety, and many are simply illegal. Moderate driving habit and properly maintained vehicles remain the best way to meet or exceed a car’s designed economy. (Autoblog Green)

Blair report faults G-8 for lack of progress on global emissions reductions: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is taking the G-8 to talk for failing to address global greenhouse gas emissions. In a report issued last week in advance of the G-8’s upcoming Japanese summit, Blair points out taht despite agreement by many nations on the Kyoto Protocols, greenhouse emissions continue to rise. Worse yet, the world’s biggest greenhouse producers have yet to agree on a post-Kyoto framework. Blair’s comments come in a document called Breaking the Climate Deadlock: A Global Deal for Our Low-Carbon Future, which proposes actions to sharply reduce carbon dioxide emission by mid-century. (Celsias)

What Is GM Thinking?: In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr, suggests that GM’s Volt project is a ruse designed to make a government bailout of the company more palatable. It’s difficult to argue with his logic: the Chevy Volt may represent a test bed for future technologies, but a sports car with an all-electric range of 30 miles is neither practical for most Americans nor particularly impressive. Jenkins praises Ford for apparently realizing that consumers want affordable, reasonably efficient smaller vehicles for everyday driving. Ford recently announced that it will be retooling a number of large truck and SUV plants to produce North American versions of its popular European small sedans. (WSJ.com)

Flat Screen TVs Worse For Climate Than a Big Coal Plant: What’s worse than big coal-burning power plants for the environment? If Treehugger is to be believed, it’s big flat screen TVs. Yes, it’s a hyperbolic claim from the world’s most influential green website. But they have a point: jumbo flat screen TVs consume some 4 thousand tons of nitrogen triflouride each year, a green house gas thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. Fortunately, its use isn’t indispensable: Toshiba has already stopped using nitrogen triflouride in its monitors. So that’s less green guilt as you much on processed corn products and watch a 70,000 fans cheer on some nighttime sporting event under the glare of a few hundred carbon arc spotlights. (Treehugger)

Chemists brew ‘greener’ fireworks: Today is Independence Day in the United States, and the night skies will be filled with fireworks capping a day of outdoor activities and patriotic observances. You may be pleased to know that some of the busting shells and fountains of sparks are a little less toxic this year. Researchers in several countries have been brewing up fireworks which use fewer dangerous chemicals. Those spectacular colors come from a chemical stew of very un-green elements, including lithium, strontium, and antimony. An Environmental Protection Agency study a few years back found that levels of perchlorate — a known cancer-causing agent — were up to a thousand times above normal after firework shows. Potassium perchlorate is a commonly-used oxidant in outdoor pyrotechnic displays. (CNET)