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The Haze Over Wyoming

by Penelope Purdy, May 6, 2005 From the time I was a tot, many of my fondest memories were formed in Wyoming’s upper Green River Basin and the magnificent mountains that flank it – herding cattle on my uncle’s ranch, cantering with my cousins on horseback through the sagebrush, or pretending to fly fish in some of the best trout streams in the West. Pinedale. Big Piney. Cora. La Barge. The names on my home state’s map are cocooned deep in my heart. Wyoming used to have air so clean it purified your soul. But these days, there’s a warning writ in haze on the horizon. I remember, too, the frequent companionship of pronghorn antelope – sometimes one or two across the ridge from the ranch house, sometimes by the hundreds as they raced, unimpeded, across vast open spaces just before sunset. But these days, the antelope face enemies they cannot outrun. I have watched the once-pristine upper Green River Basin mutate into an industrialized sacrifice zone for the Bush administration’s ill-conceived oil and gas development rush. Some 3,000 wells, mostly for natural gas, already have been drilled in the basin, but another 10,000 more are on the drawing board. […]

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Mitsubishi Motors Swtiches Focus from Fuel Cell Vehicles to EV's

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. unveiled a test car of new electric vehicles Wednesday featuring motors housed in wheels and long-lasting batteries, aiming to commercialize them by 2010. Unlike conventional electric vehicles, which have motors on the chassis, the Colt EV’s in-wheel motors make it possible to regulate drive torque and braking force independently at each wheel without any transmission or other complex mechanical components, Mitsubishi Motors said. The Colt EV also adopted lithium-ion battery technology, which offers advantages of specific energy and life over other types of rechargeable batteries, it said. The next-generation vehicle can cruise for about 150 kilometers per charge. Mitsubishi Motors will focus on developing new electric vehicles for the time being because their development costs less than for electric-gasoline hybrid or fuel cell vehicles. The scandal-tainted automaker has been under a reconstruction program following a series of defect coverups and recalls. The Colt EV will be on display at the 2005 Automotive Engineering Exposition to be held in Yokohama from May 18 to 20.

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Shareholder Resolutions Target Ford's Policy Failures

After a devastating bond downgrade to ‘junk’ status by Standard & Poors, investors and environmental advocates inside Ford Motor Company’s (NYSE: F) annual meeting expressed concern that Ford is losing market share and profits to foreign competitors – like Honda and Toyota – by actively lobbying against increases in national fuel economy standards, by not implementing a policy to tie executive compensation to greenhouse gas reductions and by not using current clean car technologies. Ford’s sales have fallen for the 10th straight month, while according to the EPA, Ford has the lowest fleetwide fuel economy of any major automaker. With rising gasoline prices and increasing concern about global warming and global security, the company has lost a significant number of customers that want high-tech, high-efficiency vehicles rather than heavy, gas guzzling trucks and SUVs. While Chairman and CEO Bill Ford Jr. has said the company will address this issue, the company’s lobbying and salary incentive policies show the opposite. In yesterday’s meeting, shareholders voted their concerns in the form of two shareholder proposals. Both proposals received well above the 3% threshold required by the SEC to allow the resolutions to be refilled in the coming year, should the company not […]

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:May 11, 2005

News and Events DOE Funds Five Research Projects to Boost Mining Efficiency Washington State Adopts New Renewable Energy and Efficiency Laws Montana Laws Set Requirements for Renewable Energy and Ethanol Ormat Breaks Ground on New Geothermal Plant in California Large Wind Power Plant Moves Ahead in Idaho EPA: Ten U.S. Corporations to Cut Greenhouse Gases Energy ConnectionsStudies Find More Solar Energy Reaching Earth’s Surface News and EventsDOE Funds Five Research Projects to Boost Mining EfficiencyDOE announced last week its selection of five new projects to develop new mining technologies that will reduce energy use and lower costs. DOE will contribute nearly $1.88 million to the five projects, matched by $1.13 million from the private sector. The largest project is the development of an integrated data analysis system that aims to change the way mines measure, predict, control, and monitor their processes, with a goal of making the processes more efficient. The other four projects will investigate the use of high-pressure water jets for hard rock mining, develop a novel processing technology for dry coal, and evaluate two methods to remove water from wet slurries containing small particles of coal. See the DOE press release.Each year, nearly 47,000 pounds of materials […]

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