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  • Ford won’t sell 65-mpg diesel car in U.S.

    The Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, a small, sporty five-seater that gets an impressive 65 miles per gallon, will the hit the road in November — but only in Europe. “We just don’t think North and South America would buy that many diesel cars,” says Ford America President Mark Fields. The new generation of diesel cars, which […]

  • Phoenix NBA team to add solar system to arena’s roof

    Going solar is a slam dunk for the Phoenix Suns, who are installing a 196 kW solar system on their arena’s roof. This installation was made possible by the state’s Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff, which was implemented by the state’s Corporation Commission and is currently under threat on several fronts. Arizona’s primary was last […]

  • Conservative heavy-hitters discuss what makes for a safer world

    Kate and I mostly spent our time at the RNC seeking out energy/environment-related events, but I wanted to go to at least a few on other subjects, just to see if our issues popped up anywhere outside their normal silo. In that spirit, on Wed. afternoon I attended a panel discussion called "Building a Better, […]

  • Half of GM’s manufacturing plants to go “landfill-free” by 2010

    Automaker GM is planning to make half of its 181 manufacturing plants worldwide “landfill-free” by 2011 through initiatives to reuse or recycle some 90 percent of its waste, according to USA Today. The not-reused, not-recycled portion of the waste would potentially be incinerated to produce energy. GM has yet to formally announce the program, but […]

  • Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers says deal imminent with Whole Foods

    I’m a lame blogger when it comes to breaking news at conferences, when my brain typically reaches explosion point with all the information zooming in. I should have live-blogged this Saturday, while I was taking in Slow Food Nation’s “Toward a new, fair food system” panel: Coalition of Immokalee Workers leader Lucas Benitez revealed that […]

  • Honda rolls out new cheap hybrid with familiar name

    At the Paris International Auto Show next month, Honda will unveil a prototype of its new low-cost hybrid: the Insight. A lot has changed since 1999, when the company debuted the first hybrid to hit American roads: the, um, Insight. Has Honda exhausted its supply of car names? Nay, says the company: “The name Insight […]

  • Biofuels: not cost-effective or lucrative for climate change or business

    According to this article in Mongabay, a study from a British think tank is calling for an end to subsidies for biofuels based on — not biodiversity loss and high food prices — cost effectiveness. The economics is startling — if developed countries spent the same amount of money on preventing deforestation and the destruction […]

  • New HP laptop packaged in messenger bag instead of box

    Don’t take Grandma to Wal-Mart: the big-box store’s new Hewlett-Packard laptop “will be displayed on shelves wearing only the HP Protect Messenger Bag.” Scandalous! But actually, there’s no need to avert your eyes: the HP Pavilion dv6929 is served up in a recycled, reusable messenger bag instead of a box, cutting cardboard and plastic packaging […]

  • Offshore wind power in U.S. poised to take off

    There are no offshore wind turbines generating electricity in U.S. waters yet, but that’s expected to change soon if wind-power advocates and wind developers have their way. The first U.S. offshore wind turbines could be spinning in as little as three to five years if all goes well. The U.S. Interior Department is already conducting […]

  • RNC: Bipartisanship trumps renewable energy, at least party-wise

    Kate and I did the party circuit tonight, and it was … weird. Our first stop was a party thrown by the Bipartisan Policy Center. Grist readers will be familiar with the BPC via its founder and current president Jason Grumet, who is Barack Obama’s top energy and climate adviser. The BPC also threw a […]