NEW YORK - Economic and policy problems have placed a few potholes in front of the fast-growing clean-technology business. Forecasts for clean-technology adoption all point upward these days, buoyed by high double digits growth rates in sectors like wind and solar power over the past several years. But a panel of financial experts here at
LANSING - Three of the four bills in the House energy package moved one step, at least procedurally, closer to the governor's desk Thursday. But it was still not clear after the Senate Energy Policy and Public Utilities Committee's action what the bills might look like as they move back to the House, or when
DETROIT - A test fleet of Ford Escape plug-in hybrid electric vehicles is making its way on the road today powered by lithium-ion batteries from Johnson Controls-Saft. The demonstration fleet will examine the future of PHEVs as part of a complete vehicle, home and grid energy system. The green project is the result of an
LANSING - While little legislation overhauling Michigan's utility and energy regulatory system has moved so far from the Senate Energy Policy and Public Utilities Committee, its chair, Sen. Bruce Patterson (R-Canton), said committee members are working towards resolution of the issues. But that does not necessarily mean there will be a "straight line to an
DETROIT - In recent months, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has signaled that change was in the offing and that the company's future depended upon more fuel-efficient vehicles. So it was that today GM announced reversed its years-old strategy in what likely was a surrender to $4-plus gasoline prices at the pump for many Americans
LOS ANGELES - Shell is preparing to open a fueling station in west Los Angeles later this month that will dispense gasoline or, for the right car, hydrogen. Duncan Macleod, vice president of Shell Hydrogen, provided this update during a keynote talk Tuesday at the CTSI Clean Technology conference, where he said that the Santa
SAN DIEGO, Ca. - Start-up Sapphire Energy is promising an innovation that sounds as miraculous as a water-to-wine transformation. On Wednesday, the company took the covers off what it calls green crude - a liquid fuel chemically identical to gasoline but, not dependent on either a food source or agricultural land. Even better, it promises
LANSING - Legislation implementing the Great Lakes compact - to give the world's largest freshwater watershed greater protection from possible diversions as well as provide new rules governing water bottling operations and internal diversions - passed the Michigan Senate and House unanimously on Wednesday. However, the Legislature did not act on some of the more
LANSING - Rep. Jeff Mayes (D-Bay City), chair of the Michigan House Agriculture Committee, said Wednesday that lawmakers in the House and Senate are still working out details of a legislative package aimed at nurturing the state's alternative fuels industry. But the panel did move forward with reporting two bills that would extend the state
LANSING �?? Michigan could designate five new renaissance zones for companies in the business of making fuel from cellulosic materials under legislation reported unanimously by the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday. Republican members on the panel originally opposed HB 5746 , because it would designate six of the current energy renaissance zones for cellulosic firms.