Felix Kramer

Last updated
Felix Kramer
Born (1949-04-29) April 29, 1949 (age 74)
EducationCornell University
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, advocate, and writer
Known forFounding CalCars.org, promoting plug-in vehicles
Spouse Rochelle Lefkowitz
Website http://www.beyondcassandra.org

Felix Kramer (born April 29, 1949) is an entrepreneur, strategist and writer. After a succession of jobs and projects in the nonprofit sector and an early internet startup, he gained attention after 2002 as the founder of the California Cars Initiative, promoting mass production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Since 2009, he has written broadly on climate change awareness and solutions, and collaborated on or co-founded climate-related projects.

Contents

Biography

Education and early career

Kramer grew up in the New York metropolitan area. He received his bachelor's degree in American Studies from Cornell University in January 1971. At college and after, he was active in anti-Vietnam war and draft resistance activities,. [1] He worked as a Congressional aide and a writer/editor and director for several environmental organizations, including the New York event of the national Sun Day event in 1978 and the NYC Energy Task Force, known for its wind and solar installations on low-income buildings. [2]

Personal computer and early internet-era activity

With the arrival of WYSIWIG computers and software and laser printing, he co-founded the New York Macintosh User Group's DTP Special Interest Group. [3] In 1984 he started Kramer Communications, one of New York City's first start-to-finish desktop publishing (DTP) companies; he sold the company in 1997.

Kramer became involved in fax broadcasting and then with business development, usability and online marketing and promotion for a series of early online startups. [4] In 1997, as he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, Kramer founded eConstructors.com, an online marketplace for the web design and development industry, featuring "WhoBuiltIt," the first online reverse directory for websites. He built the company with a small international staff, raised angel funding and remained as CEO until it was bought in early 2001. [5]

Plug-in car advocacy

In 2001, interrupted by surgery for an acoustic neuroma, Kramer moved his focus from high-tech back to his earlier environmental concerns. He approached Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), and entered into discussions with RMI-spinoff HyperCar to advance its concept of a fully optimized, 99 mile/gallon, fuel-cell-powered SUV. He proposed a pre-purchase "demand-pull" model for financing the company. This evolved into what became the California Cars Initiative, which led the successful campaign for commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

In 2006, with a conversion by one of the independent conversion companies, Kramer became the "world's first non-technical consumer owner" of a PHEV. [6] He flew that vehicle to Washington DC in May 2006 for the first public viewing of a PHEV on Capitol Hill. [7] Within four years, many of the major automakers began to offer some type of plug-in hybrid or all-electric vehicle, beginning with the Chevrolet Volt.

Author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman acknowledges Kramer's role in promoting the idea of plug-in hybrid vehicles, calling him someone "who has made plug-in electric cars not only his passion but an imminent reality." [8]

Climate change activities

His activities and writing about global warming emerged from his work on plug-in cars as he focused on powering electric vehicles by renewable energy. He began including the issue in testimony and articles in 2004. After 2009, Kramer focused on writing and organizing about climate change awareness and solutions, working with groups such as 350.org, Environmental Entrepreneurs—E2.org, the Citizens' Climate Lobby and the Sierra Club, and advising and investing in cleantech and clean energy companies.

In 2014, he started Beyond Cassandra, a "mini-think tank" for projects, ideas, campaigns, and initiatives about climate change. [9]

In mid-2016, he cofounded The ClimateCongress Wikipedia Project, a 501(c)3 project to assemble on an independent wiki what candidates and incumbents in the House and Senate say and do about climate change. The project, with volunteers, a core team, and crowdsourcers, aims to identify a subset of information to move eventually to Wikipedia. It expects to evolve into ClimatePolitics, expanding to state, regional and local officeholders and appointees. [10] In late 2016, he founded Climate.MBA, a project to promote Emergency Climate Teach-Ins at business schools. [11]

Publications and public presentations

Using knowledge gained in the DTP business and his early editorial experience, Kramer co-authored (with Maggie Lovaas) an early book on electronic publishing as a business in 1990 & 1991. The book, Desktop Publishing Success: How to Start and Run a Desktop Publishing Business, sold 25,000 copies in seven reprintings and was widely reviewed, including acclaim as "the Bible of the DTP Biz" by Publish Magazine's editor-in-chief. [12]

Much of his writing on plug-in cars was distributed via the CalCars Yahoo! news-group news-letter, copies of which are archived on CalCars' website. [13] On climate change and clean energy, he has authored or co-authored with renewable energy experts and advocates including Dan Kammen, Gil Friend, and Hunter Lovins, op-ed pieces for the Huffington Post, the San Jose Mercury-News, Salon, Grist, Alternet, The Guardian and the Houston Chronicle. [14]

Kramer has spoken extensively at energy and policy events in the U.S. and internationally. [15]

Personal life

Kramer is married to Rochelle Lefkowitz, president and founder of Pro-Media Communications, and they have an adult son.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plug-in hybrid</span> Hybrid vehicle whose battery may be externally charged

A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a type of hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a rechargeable battery pack that can be replenished by connecting a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engine-powered generator. While PHEVs are predominantly passenger cars, there are also plug-in hybrid variants of sports cars, commercial vehicles, vans, utility trucks, buses, trains, motorcycles, mopeds, military vehicles and boats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies</span>

The FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies (FCVT) was a national Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program developing more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly highway transportation technologies to enable the United States to use less petroleum. Run by Michael Berube, it had long-term aims to develop "leap-frog" technologies to provide Americans with greater freedom of mobility and energy security, lower costs, and reduce environmental impacts.

Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) was an American photovoltaics manufacturer of thin-film solar cells made of amorphous silicon used in flexible laminates and in building-integrated photovoltaics. The company was also a manufacturer of rechargeable batteries and other renewable energy related products. ECD was headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternative fuel vehicle</span> Type of vehicle

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew A. Frank</span> American academic

Andrew Alfonso Frank is an emeritus American professor of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at University of California, Davis. He is recognized as the father of modern plug-in hybrids, and coined the term Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CalCars</span> US Environmental/Climate Change org

CalCars was a charitable, non-profit organization founded in 2002 to promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) as a key to addressing oil dependence and global warming both nationally and internationally. It was active until 2010, when the first mass-produced PHEVs arrived. CalCars envisioned millions of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, charged by off-peak electricity from renewable energy sources, and with their internal combustion engines powered by low-carbon alternative fuels, as a way to significantly reduce greenhouse gases that come from transportation.

All-electric range (AER) is the maximum driving range of an electric vehicle using only power from its on-board battery pack to traverse a given driving cycle. In the case of a Battery electric vehicle (BEV), it means the maximum range per recharge, typically between 150 and 400 miles. For a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), it means the maximum range in charge-depleting mode, typically between 20 and 40 miles. PHEVs can travel considerably further in charge-sustaining mode which utilizes both fuel combustion and the on-board battery pack like a conventional hybrid electric vehicle (HEV).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of plug-in hybrids</span> Aspect of history

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Sherry Boschert is an author, journalist, and activist who currently is working on a history of Title IX. Her previous book, Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America helped jump-start the shift toward electric vehicles. Sherry has published more than 2,000 articles as a journalist. Her work has been published in The New York Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and other news outlets. She worked as a medical news reporter for Frontline Medical News from 1991-2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric car</span> Car propelled by an electric motor using energy stored in batteries

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plug-in electric vehicle</span> Type of vehicle

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plug-in electric vehicles in California</span> Overview of plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S. State of California

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There are numerous versions of vehicle propulsion systems. Many of those came into fruition due to need for cleaner vehicles. Each of them might have many abbreviations and some might be misleading. This article explains shortly what defines them.

References

  1. ↑ Boschert, Sheri (2006). Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers. p.  52. ISBN   0-86571-571-8 . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  2. ↑ Boschert, Sheri (2006). Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers. p.  54. ISBN   0-86571-571-8 . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  3. ↑ Boschert, Sheri (2006). Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers. p.  53. ISBN   0-86571-571-8 . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  4. ↑ Boschert, Sheri (2006). Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers. p.  54. ISBN   0-86571-571-8 . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  5. ↑ Boschert, Sheri (2006). Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers. p.  54. ISBN   0-86571-571-8 . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  6. ↑ Where PHEVs Are"
  7. ↑ PHEVs in DC."
  8. ↑ Friedman, Thomas (8 September 2008). Hot, Flat, and Crowded . Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p.  417.
  9. ↑ "Beyond Cassandra". Beyond Cassandra. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  10. ↑ "Climate Congress Wikipedia Project" . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  11. ↑ "Can MBAs Reach Trump on Climate's Urgency?" . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  12. ↑ Desktop Publishing Success: How to Start and Run a Desktop Publishing Business
  13. ↑ "CalCars-News Archive Index". CalCars. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  14. ↑ "Beyond Cassandra". What Felix Kramer Has Written on climate change & clean energy. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  15. ↑ "CalCars Events". CalCars. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
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