As I perused the bountiful wares of Rexville Grocery in rural Washington State last week, I was surprised to see a sign in their front window advertising an electric-vehicle charging station.

The small market and community center (which, at this time of year, offers delectable pies with berries plucked right from the surrounding farmlands) sits in the heart of the fertile Skagit Valley, about 60 miles (about 97 kilometers) from Seattle.

The concept of a country-store charging station spurred me to look into how mainstream electric cars—already popular in Europe— are faring in the U.S.

Hybrids have long been hot, of course—for instance, much has been made recently of the newly released third-generation Prius, which features integrated solar-powered technology.

For electric vehicles, it seems they are just on the cusp of going mainstream. I found the handy Plug-in Vehicle Tracker on Plug-In America's Web site, which maintains a list of most companies developing new electric vehicles.

According to the tracker, only two electric cars are now widely available in the U.S.: Commuter Cars's tiny Tango T600 EV, a two-passenger commuter car that sells for about U.S. $108,000, and the Tesla Roadster, which also carries a $100,000-plus price tag.

There's apparently a healthy electric car demand among the high-end crowd: Just today, Tesla opened its first East Coast dealership in New York City.

But one of most affordable cars in the pipeline seems to be TH!NK city, a compact electric car that can travel up to 112 miles (about 180 kilometers) on a single charge. It will have recyclable plastic body panels and a fully recyclable interior for a low carbon footprint.

It's produced by Think, a Norwegian car manufacturer that announced it would begin building a manufacturing plant in the U.S. this year, with a starting annual capacity of about 16,000 cars.

"The U.S. is quickly overtaking Europe as an attractive market for [electric vehicles], and is an ideal location to engineer and build EVs," Think CEO Richard Canny said in a statement.

A limited number of model and demonstration TH!NK cars will be available in 2010 (no starting price is listed on their Web site), but the Gas 2.0 blog says it won't be until 2011 that we'll be able to get one.

But if the plug-in tracker is any indication, we're going to be inundated with electric vehicles by 2013, including several new Chrysler models, Chevrolet's Volt PHEV, the Ford Focus EV, and more.

So go find that charging station near you.

--Christine Dell'Amore

Related:

--How green is your road trip?

--Have an eco-savvy summer with these tips.

Photograph courtesy Think

According to Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times, the capital "flew into a bit of a tizzy" when your first photographs in the Oval Office showed you jacket-free and not so buttoned-up as the last President. I was tweeting too but not from your casual style but for cranking up the thermostat.

Ee-gad, Mr. President, Please don't do that. I know you're from Hawaii, but put on a sweater, as Jimmy Carter did, or consider installing a furnace humidifier. You see, it's really not the heat that matters, it's the humidity.

A humidifier can help reduce the heat you need to feel comfortable in a room because moist air feels warmer and as such you can feel the same warmth at a lower temperature as long as the humidity is high enough. A 20°C or 69°F temperature at 35% relative humidity feels just as warm as a 22°C or 72°F setting at 19% relative humidity. So install a furnace humidifier, set it for the proper humidity and your thermostat three degrees lower than you would normally. You'll be comfortable while saving; this small adjustment in temperature will lower your annual heating bills by as much as 5 percent.

For more energy saving tips, check out the Green Guide.

Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal of the day, and if yours is like most families', it includes a glass of orange juice, a great source of Vitamin C. Few, or so we figured, have ever tipped back their glass of orange deliciousness and wondered about the other C, the element Carbon, and just how much the morning glass-full contributes to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other global warming gases into the atmosphere. As it turns out, PepsiCo, which owns the Tropicana brand, did and recently hired experts to conduct the life cycle analysis to find out. What they learned surprised them; it wasn't running the factory or transporting the heavy juice containers, but the nitrogen fertilizers, which require natural gas to make and can turn into a potent greenhouse gas, that were the primary contributor.

PepsiCo should be commended for taking a look at the CO2 footprint of its products and finding out just where the carbon is in the chain. They're now in a better position to make decisions that will curb their energy use and combat global warming. And lucky for them, research conducted at the Rodale Institute's Experimental Farm provides strong evidence that organic farming practices can do just that--combat global warming by capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide and incorporating it into the soil.

The data come from the institute's Farming Systems Trial launched in 1981, which compared a conventional agriculture system to two types of organic farming systems. Over the course of 23 years, the trial revealed that the two organic systems increased soil carbon by 15 to 28 percent, while the conventional system showed none. For the organic systems that translates into about 3,670 lbs of CO2 per acre-foot per year--and that's not even counting the reductions in CO2 emissions represented by the fact that organic farming uses just 63 percent of the energy required by conventional farming systems, largely because of the massive amounts of energy required to synthesize nitrogen fertilizer.

The energy needed to transport heavy juice containers should be factored in when considering which juice to buy. Green Guide's recommendation: Go for the organic brands that are available as a frozen concentrate to start your day off on the right foot, and with the smallest footprint.

Way to go, Mr. President! You had the beautiful commemorative invitations to the Inauguration printed on FSC certified and 100 percent recycled paper. You hadn't taken office yet and already you were setting a great example of appreciation and respect for our planet's natural resources.

Processing paper from virgin timber is tough on the environment. Clear cutting can destroy wildlife habitat and increases erosion and sedimentation of streams. The cut wood is then ground, pressed, dried and chlorine bleached, producing over 1,000 different organochlorines, including the carcinogen dioxin, and mercury. The process also requires large amounts of energy and contributes as much as 9 percent of total manufacturing carbon emissions in the U.S. At the other end of its lifecycle, much of the paper we buy ends up in landfills.

The good news is paper recycling in the U.S. is on the rise, and choosing the right paper for your kitchen, bathroom or home office can help save forests and conserve energy, too. A ton of recycled paper saves 3,000 to 4,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity compared with producing a ton of virgin-fiber paper.

And it's now widely available. You can find high-content recycled paper in most office supply stores, including giants like Staples and Office Depot. Do pay attention to the labels and choose paper that's processed chlorine free (PCF) and with a high post-consumer waste (PCW) content--up to 100 percent. Green Guide recommends Mohawk's white Option and colored Via fine papers, made with 100 percent PCW using renewable wind energy ($22-$25/200 sheets; www.mohawkpaper.com, 800-843-6455) and Neenah Paper's Environment and Classic writing and printing papers ($21.95-$26.95/250 sheets; www.neenahpaper.com, 888-558-5061) and Wausau's Exact Eco 100 copy paper ($4/500 sheets; www.wausaupapers.com) are both 100 percent PCW and PCF.

Of course, reducing use is best. As a technically savvy President, you will appreciate the many simple ways to dramatically reduce office paper use altogether: Make sure everyone at home and in the office chooses the double-sided printing option on their printers, uses the blank side of scrap paper for printing drafts and distributes as many documents electronically as possible.

Cut back on paper in the kitchen as well by using cloth towels and napkins instead. But if you want to keep a roll of paper towels on hand for real messes, consider Marcal Paper's PCF paper towels, over 60 percent PCW, which can be found in stores nationwide ($2.99/3-pack; www.marcalpaper.com, 201-796-4000). For bathroom and facial tissue, try Cascade's North River PCF with 80 percent PCW (from $1.39; www.cascades.com; 819-363-5100). Whole Foods' store brand 365 Everyday Value toilet paper, napkins and paper towels are all PCF and up to 95 percent PCW ($1.69-$2.99/pack; www.wholefoodsmarket.com).

Based on the interview he gave to 60 Minutes after he was elected, Obama doesn't really need to be told this. Still, it's great that his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, is moving in to the White House with the rest of the family, and he should take advantage of all she can offer.

Grandmothers and mothers-in-law have always been valuable sources of advice for all things green, having grown up during a less wasteful era when conservation was key and waste was a sin. If it weren't for my grandmothers, it would never have occurred to me to use cardboard toilet-paper rolls as extension-cord organizers or food scraps as fertilizer.

In honor of these wise women, we've compiled a list of some of the nation's former First Ladies (and grandmothers and mothers-in-law) and their contributions to a better planet.

Abigail Adams: Her green contribution: line drying laundry in the White House's East Room. Yes, that was standard practice in a pre-clothes-dryer world, but if all of us followed Mrs. Adams' example, we'd cut our fossil-fuel-dependent energy use by 4 percent.

Edith Wilson: In 1918, the second First Lady of Woodrow Wilson decided to bring a flock of sheep to the White House both to provide wool, which she auctioned off to support the war effort, and to keep the lawn trimmed. Of course, gas-powered lawn mowers hadn't been invented then either, but even today, it's a great form of organic lawn care. And with all that wool, you'll be able to turn the thermostat down a few degrees in winter.

Lou Hoover: While her husband may not have a great reputation for how he handled the economy, Mrs. Hoover was an avid nature lover (she earned a geology degree from Stanford), and she was heavily involved in the Girl Scouts, getting girls to love the outdoors as much as she did. This year, along with "Take Your Daughters to Work Day," institute a "Take Your Daughters on a Walk Day" and get them excited about science and the environment.

Eleanor Roosevelt: The woman who planted the first Victory Garden, on the White House grounds in 1943, faced serious objections from the USDA and agriculture industry, who complained that she was hurting food sales. Her reasons for the garden were patriotic, but it's green, too: Growing your own food (and knowing which pesticides, if any, were used, and how many miles, or feet, it traveled from garden to table) is an eco-friendly habit we can all adopt. You can sign a petition encouraging the new President and First Lady to start an organic food garden at www.eattheview.org.

Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson: She may be best known for her efforts to decorate the nation's highways with wildflowers and native plants (which foster biodiversity, feed the soil and contribute a number of other environmental benefits to the landscape). But Ms. Johnson lobbied her husband quite extensively for better environmental protections, like air-pollution controls, and against destructive practices like strip mining. Plant a wildflower in her honor this spring.

Hillary Clinton: Technically, she's neither a grandmother nor a mother-in-law, but she's still made (and continues to make) major moves on the environmental front as First Lady, Senator and now Secretary of State. She was recently involved in establishing the New York Partnership for a Green Afghanistan, an initiative to replant trees to revitalize Afghanistan's orchards, nurseries, woodlots and greenbelts. Planting trees, says Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai, is the best thing any of us can do to help foster a healthier planet.

Laura Bush: Our last First Lady incorporated green elements into the Bushes' Crawford ranch, which was built in 2000, including geothermal heating and cooling and permeable landscaping that allows rainwater to be recycled as irrigation water. If you can't remodel your home or re-do your landscaping, you can still incorporate some energy-saving habits into your daily routine, or save water by collecting your "warm-up" water to use on plants.

It's always fun to Monday-morning-quarterback an inauguration, especially since they only come around every four years. I, personally, was a little disappointed that Obama didn't trade the armored limousine for a super-compact Smart Car, at least on the parade route. How profound a statement would that have made for substantive change in Washington?

Oh, I'm sure armored limos make more sense for security reasons, so I was stuck scrutinizing his. And I couldn't help wonder, were his tires properly inflated?

Much was made of last August's Republican gag that involved tire gauges imprinted with the words "Obama's Energy Plan," spurred by a statement then-Candidate Obama made about how much gas could be saved (and energy saved from unnecessary coastal drilling) if people just kept their tires inflated. He was touted as naïve, compared to Jimmy Carter and his sweaters--but in the end, I wanted one of those tire gauges. It's a good plan.

Whether you're republican, democrat, libertarian or politically agnostic, if you care about the planet, you have to concede that it makes sense. Conservation is key to reducing our dependence on climate-changing fossil fuels and imported oil. Plus, it falls in line perfectly with Obama's belief in personal responsibility and everyone chipping in to do his or her part.

The numbers are all over the map when it comes to actual gallons of gas saved by such a simple measure, but assuming all gasoline (not diesel) powered cars on American roads had properly inflated tires, the drivers could cut gas consumption by 3.3 percent. That's about 13 million gallons of gas every day and, at current gas prices, $24 million a day that isn't going to the oil companies. How's that for a bail-out?