Dave flagged GE's ecomagination initiative on Sunday, and here's the Dow Jones wire report on Immelt's speech: WASHINGTON -- The U.S. needs to be more like Europe and develop a clear environmental policy on issues such as climate change and use of renewable energy, said General Electric Co. (GE) Chief Executive Jeff Immelt Monday. He called Europe "the global regulatory superpower" when it comes to environmental policy, noting that Europe is using more wind power now because five years ago it set a clear goal to do just that. Similar actions need to be taken in the U.S., said Immelt. …

Look, GM, your bond rating just got lowered to junk status, and now you're participating in this pathetic greenwashing campaign. My advice: Save your advertising dollars and invest the money in catching up to Toyota and Honda. UPDATE: Green Car Congress chimes in with some more suggestions.

This is progress: JPMorgan Chase recognizes that balancing non-financial factors such as environmental and social issues with financial priorities is an essential part of good corporate citizenship, in addition to being fundamental to risk management and the protection of investors. We have a direct impact on the environment through our daily consumption of energy and paper resources. We also potentially have an indirect effect on the environment through the provision of financial services to projects in environmentally sensitive areas. Protecting the natural systems upon which all life depends while lifting people out of poverty and advancing economic development are among …

Hmmm ... maybe those Reapers were onto something after all? DETROIT - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its corporate credit ratings to junk status for both General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., a significant blow that will increase borrowing costs and limit fund-raising options for the nation's two biggest automakers. Shares of both companies fell 5 percent or more after Thursday's downgrades, and the news sent the overall market lower. The decision by one of the nation's most respected ratings agencies comes as the two iconic American automakers are losing market share at home to Asian automakers, seeing …

... knows that the energy bill stinks to high heaven: So is Congress rushing to embrace innovative ideas to kick the oil habit? Certainly not. In fact, the House of Representatives has just done the opposite by passing an energy bill stuffed full of subsidies for the oil-and-gas business. It includes giveaways for ethanol (a pretty ungreen petrol additive popular with corn farmers) and cheap catastrophic insurance for the nuclear industry. Meanwhile, it does nothing to close a loophole that allows sports-utility vehicles and Hummers to escape fuel-economy standards. This bill is similar to last year's failed energy bill, which …

As expected, one of Bush's complaints in last night's speech was that there haven't been new refineries coming online, thus creating a "bottleneck" in the system. There's some truth to that, but note that he contradicted himself when he said that jawboning other countries to boost supplies would lower the price of gas at the pump. [I should add: high gas prices are generally OK with me because they reduce long-run demand, though I'd prefer that extra money go to the U.S. government in the form of gas taxes rather than, say, into the opaque coffers of Ayatollah Khamenei, Hugo …

This from an estranged Republican blogger: Conservatives love to ridicule Jimmy Carter for wearing a sweater, telling Americans to turn down their thermostats in the winter, and urging them to drive smaller cars. But can anyone imagine President Bush going out on that kind of a limb to set an example? That lack of leadership will be his legacy on this issue. Yeah. Shameful. It's worth noting that Jimmy Carter was absolutely right on the merits, even though his political approach was (metaphorically) suicidal. For all of his bragging about being willing to take on "tough challenges," Bush has been …

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Daimler-Chrysler, which manufactures the very chic SMART cars, posted some dodgy 1q earnings today. The bad news is that the SMART division (smart GmbH) appears to be struggling. The press release doesn't say much: Stuttgart/Auburn Hills, 04/28/2005 - First-quarter unit sales decreased by 7% to 247,000 vehicles, while revenues were 11% lower at 10.4 billion euros. The operating loss of 954 million euros (Q1 2004: 639 million euros) was affected by expenses of 800 million euros relating to the realignment of the smart business unit. At smart there was an operating …

Worldchanger Jamais Cascio has a long, linktastic post about Richard Florida and his argument that there is an identifiable "creative class" of mobile workers that values, well, urbanism: a high quality of life, culture diversity and tolerance, thick labor markets, etc. I live in Pittsburgh, where Florida got his start, so I'm well acquainted with his ideas and his, ahem, penchant for self-publicity. Unfortunately, Florida doesn't actually delve into the relationship between the environment and thriving cities; instead he uses a generalized quality of life measure of somewhat dubious reliability (it's hard to quantify this stuff). So I'm glad that …

Macroeconomic analyst Barry Ritholtz is blogging about oil and markets over at The Big Picture. And he's got investment advice: cancer treatment in China is going to be big business sometime in the near future. He's got a lot of charts and posts, so be sure to look around.