GM -- stung by declining sales of SUVs and subsequently shamed by having its credit ratings lowered to junk status -- is trying a new marketing approach: touting its more fuel-efficient models (such as they are). A new full-page newspaper ad cries "Meet the 30 and Up Crowd" and showcases "19 cars that have EPA highway estimates of at least 30 miles per gallon." Too bad it doesn't have a single consumer hybrid model that it can tout on the page. (Its two hybrid trucks top out at 22 mpg.) Sucks to be GM.

Canadian tar sands becoming top oil source, despite environmental harm With conventional oil reserves declining around the world, all eyes are turning to Canada, where tar sands in the north contain 175 billion barrels of proven oil reserves -- almost in the neighborhood of Saudi Arabia's 262 billion and far more than the Arctic Refuge's 10 billion. Getting saleable oil from tar sands is an expensive and environmentally devastating process involving strip mining, burning the oil off the slag with natural gas, and refining the resulting heavy oil into lighter oil. But with oil hovering above $50 a barrel, tar-sand …

States sue EPA over new mercury rules and the "hot spots" they'll create A coalition of 11 states filed suit against the U.S. EPA in federal court yesterday, charging that the agency's recently issued mercury emissions rules, which establish a "cap and trade" system whereby coal-fired power plants can trade pollution credits, pose an unacceptable threat to public health. Led by New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey, the states charge that allowing plants to trade credits rather than mandating that they reduce emissions will lead to mercury "hot spots" around polluting plants. The lawsuit follows on the heels of …

Few new ideas emerge from latest U.N. climate meetings What comes after Kyoto? That was the focus of a 190-nation, two-day seminar convened by the U.N. this week in Bonn, Germany, the first in what's likely to be a gazillion-step process of figuring out what sort of climate-change treaty should pick up where the Kyoto Protocol leaves off. As usual, U.S. representatives were brimming with enthusiasm: "It's not clear that there's going to be a Kyoto effort beyond 2012," said U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson. Feel the love! Other countries were more supportive, but familiar arguments surfaced immediately. Developed countries argued …

On April 21, Congress stepped back in geologic time when the House of Representatives passed an energy policy of the dinosaurs, by the dinosaurs, and for the dinosaurs. This energy bill is truly a "Jurassic" piece of legislation that relies on a limited energy source derived from creatures and plants that died millions of years ago. In fact, 93 percent of the $8 billion in tax incentives in the bill go to oil, gas, and other traditional energy industries. A patriotic sight. Photo: Tennessee Valley Infrastructure Group Inc. c/o NREL. Shortly before the House debate, one national leader said, "I …

Argentine town may be model for producing hydrogen from wind The people of Pico Truncado in southern Argentina know the power of the wind that whips through their open land; it rips flags to shreds, dumps dust on clothing, and musses hair. But it also provides more than half of the town's electricity and could bolster its economic future. Pico Truncado already has four working windmills, and a wind-powered hydrogen plant will open in June. A nearby village is participating in a U.N. pilot project as one of five sites worldwide to be powered solely by alternative fuels, and an …

Saudi-owned company set to profit from proposed MTBE liability shield OK, kids, follow the bouncing red ball: The Republican energy bill, pending in the Senate, is advertised as a way to gain independence from Saudi Arabian oil (boing!). Part of the energy bill, included at the insistence of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay (R), is a provision shielding makers of groundwater-polluting, potentially cancer-causing gas additive MTBE from liability lawsuits, despite projected costs of $8 billion to $29 billion to clean up MTBE contamination (boing!). One of the major companies that produces MTBE and would benefit from the liability shield is SABIC …

U.S. mayors form coalition to fight climate change, one city at a time A bipartisan coalition of 132 U.S. mayors -- led by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels (D), and recently joined by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) -- has issued a high-profile rebuke of Bush administration inaction on climate change. The leaders have committed to reducing their municipalities' greenhouse-gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, in line with Kyoto treaty targets. While the Bush team says Kyoto would devastate the economy, many mayors are signing on precisely for economic reasons. Nickels was jarred by a …

California flirts with high-tech electricity meters, new pricing scheme California, ever the leader in innovative greenish programs, is planning yet another experiment, this time involving electricity use and pricing. With up to 15 million high-tech meters, at a cost of around $3.6 billion, three California utilities plan to meticulously track consumers' minute-by-minute energy usage (something current meters can't do) and raise energy prices during peak hours to encourage conservation. Next-generation meters could eventually be used to remotely control energy-sucking appliances -- that is, utilities themselves could turn down your too-high air conditioning or refrigerator (creepy, but potentially energy-saving). The meters …

Low Northwest salmon run confounds fishers, closes fisheries Conservationists, salmon enthusiasts, and fisheries managers along the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest are wondering, Is it something we said? They've been stood up by thousands of chinook salmon that were expected to swim up the river to spawn this season, but never arrived. Original projections estimated some 254,000 chinook would pass the first of many dams along the Columbia this spring, but so far only about 52,000 have, and dejected fishery experts are now expecting only a few thousand more, perhaps totaling a paltry 80,000. The numbers are so low …