Echo

Car Balk

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(NY) The New York Times – The idea was to nudge innovative retailers into putting enough clean-fuel pit stops in place to create the nation’s longest alternative energy road. On this highway, you could drive from British Columbia to Baja — the entire length — in a car powered by woodchips or algae, ethanol or electricity. West Coast governors, backed by federal officials, imagined a series of stations that would allow drivers to swap out a fresh battery in minutes for electric vehicles, which can go about 100 miles on a charge. And every 60 miles or so would be a station with biofuel of some sort. Much of this, they said over the last two years, could be in place now.

Energy

Toyota: hybrids best ‘green’ car for some time

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(MI) Booth Newspapers – A Toyota executive overseeing research said Thursday a battery breakthrough is needed for electric vehicles to become mainstream, and hybrids will remain the best “green” car choice for some time. His comments came just hours after the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Toyota’s Prius hybrid was the No. 1 selling vehicle in Japan for May, clinching the top spot for the first time-even though the latest model had been on sale for only half the month. More

Echo

Bills to rise for wind power

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Consumers Energy customers will begin paying more on their bills to help pay for the utility’s efforts to reach the state-mandated requirement of generating 10% of its power from renewable energy sources. Electricity customers will begin seeing a $2.50 monthly surcharge on their September bills to support Consumers’ Renewable Energy Plan, which calls for 900 megawatts of electricity coming from wind power by 2015. The utility plans to build between 250 and 500 wind turbines in Mason and Tuscola counties to generate 450 megawatts of power. The rest is to be purchased from contractors. More

Energy

Big Oil Warms to Ethanol

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(NY) The New York Times – For decades, the big oil companies and the farm lobby have been fighting about ethanol, with the farmers pushing to produce more of it and the refiners arguing it was a boondoggle that would do little to solve the country’s energy problems.

The erstwhile enemies, it turns out, are gradually learning to get along, as refiners increasingly see a need to get involved in ethanol production. Ethanol, made chiefly from corn, now represents about 9 percent of the country’s market for liquid fuels. And the percentage is growing year after year because of federal mandates. With the nation’s thirst for gasoline, and the ethanol that is blended into it, expected to revive when the economy does, the oil companies want to be in a position to take full advantage. More

Energy

Public invited to nuclear plant issues discussion

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(MI) The Herald Palladium – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold an open house this week to discuss nuclear power issues and answer questions about the 2008 safety assessment for the Cook Nuclear Power Plant. The NRC found the Cook plant near Bridgman met all the agency’s safety objectives in 2008, and its performance was at a level that resulted in no additional NRC oversight. “This meeting allows us to discuss our annual assessment of safety performance with the company and members of the local community,” said Mark Satorius, the NRC’s Region III administrator, in a news release. More

Energy

Mileage rules fuel drivers’ wants

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(MI) The Detroit News – The new fuel-efficiency and emission standards may lead to smaller cars with lighter engines. This is not what consumers prefer, auto analysts tell us. They may be right that Americans want big, cheap cars. They also want free gasoline, clean air and complementary cocktails in coach. Meanwhile, they don’t want to send their money to petro-financed terrorists.

Energy

The Earth Wins One

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(NY) The New York Times – The nationwide automobile mileage and emissions standards announced by President Obama on Tuesday represent a huge step forward in the effort to limit greenhouse gases and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. They also represent a departure from the Bush administration’s indifference on these issues and an important down payment on Mr. Obama’s pledge to fashion an aggressive and imaginative energy policy. The standards, forged after weeks of negotiations orchestrated by Carol Browner, the White House coordinator on energy and environmental matters, may also mark the end of decades of wearying, unproductive legal and political combat between the automobile industry and environmentalists.  More

Echo

Pro/con: Ending ethanol subsidies will slash food prices

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(MN) Duluth News Tribune – In 2005, a coalition of Midwestern corn growers, giant agribusinesses, environmental groups and politicians anxious to assuage public concern over dependence on foreign oil joined together to mandate the addition of ever increasing amounts of ethanol to our gasoline. This was never a good idea, but we now know it is even worse than we imagined as we’ve learned more about its impact on our environment, our transportation infrastructure and our economy. More