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Editorial: Auto Bailout Is About Power, Not Efficiency

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By Bart King As I write this, the CEO’s of the three biggest American auto companies are en route to Washington D.C. in hybrid vehicles. ‘For Sale’ signs have been hung in the windows of the corporate jets that delivered them to the feet of Congress a few weeks ago, when they first asked for a federal bailout. But their penance is not limited to the revocation of VIP flight privileges. Whether they know it or not, they are atoning for the hubris of an entire nation that led its signature industry down a dead-end road. Despite rising gasoline prices around the world throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, U.S. car buyers and makers opted for increased power, rather than efficiency – an indulgence that was made affordable by suppressed fuel prices due to the enormous size of the U.S. market. But since the beginning of the new century, the United States has lost its market dominance, as millions of drivers in China and India adopted the American dream of auto ownership. Other factors contributed as well, but in the last two years U.S. drivers have been required to pay per-gallon prices on par with the rest of the world – […]

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My Day at the GreenBuild Conference

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Is there a green building product you particularly like or does your business make a green building product you’d like our visitors to know about? If so, please register and then add your comment below and us know. by Terry Reiber This year’s "Greenbuild International Conference and Expo," held November 19-21 at the Boston Exhibition Center was another blow-out conference. Organized by the venerable U. S. Green Building Council, it was shoulder to shoulder at many of the hundreds of booths, attracting about 25,000 attendees. Despite the broad-based slowdown in the construction industry and concern about its impact on green building, participants seemed very happy with the business they lined up during the conference. Some exhibitors were so busy I had to stand in line to speak with them, with visits limited to two minutes or less! One booth gained almost "rock star" status – the Kirei display. Who knew people could get so inspired about wheatboard made from agriculture waste and ply panels and veneers made from bamboo?! Or maybe it was the EcoTop recycled and bamboo countertops that so excited people – they shared the booth. There’s no question – Bamboo is in! Luckily, there was no Wal-Mart-style […]

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: December 3, 2008

Automakers Commit to Fuel Economy, Electrification in Long-Term Plans USDA Offers Guaranteed Loans for Commercial-Scale Biorefineries Los Angeles Pursues 1,300 Megawatts of Solar Power by 2020 California Gains its First Large LNG Fuel Production Plant Scotland Offers $15 Million for Viable Wave or Tidal Technologies Automakers Commit to Fuel Economy, Electrification in Long-Term Plans Detroit’s "Big Three" automakers came to Washington, D.C., yesterday to present their long-term viability plans to Congress, and those plans included significant commitments to fuel-saving and electric vehicle technologies. Ford Motor Company unveiled an aggressive plan to electrify its fleet of vehicles, including plans to offer an all-electric van-type vehicle in 2010 for use in commercial fleets, complemented by a battery-powered sedan in 2011. By 2012, the company will bring a family of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery electric vehicles to market. Ford intends to invest about $14 billion on fuel-efficient technologies over the next seven years and aims to achieve a 36% improvement in fuel economy for its entire fleet by the 2015 model year. The company has applied to DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program for $5 billion to support these efforts, but the company is also asking for access to up to […]

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