The New York Times' Green Inc. and Wheels blogs round up news from the Detroit Auto Show. The news is all about electric vehicles. Several foreign makers may beat U.S. firms to market or undercut them on price.
"Industry representatives have repeatedly visited the White House to discuss pending regulation of coal ash, raising suspicions that industry may be influencing the rule. In December, amid these meetings, EPA announced it was backing away from its earlier pledge to propose coal ash regulations by the end of 2009."
"Advocates for comprehensive climate legislation should look no further than the nation's unemployment rate as they ponder their chances for success this year."
"Stormwater runoff can be one of the main ways that urban areas create pollution. In some cases it can dramatically suffocate marine life. It can also cause flooding. One small town in Maryland is on the receiving end of its region's runoff. ... It's trying to set a national example with its approach to solving the problem."
"The agency's environmental and health concerns about phthalates, PBDEs and two other chemical types marks a shift in federal policy and is sparking policy changes in advance of anticipated regulations."
"It sounded like a good idea: Provide a little government money to convert wood shavings and plant waste into renewable energy. But as laudable as that goal sounds, it could end up causing more economic damage than good."
"Frigid weather that has gripped swathes of the northern hemisphere this winter is unusual but does not undermine an overall global trend of warming, experts said on Monday."
"While President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget proposal is expected to sound a death knell for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the administration has so far failed to launch the blue-ribbon commission it promised almost a year ago to decide on a waste-disposal alternative."
After getting major concessions in return for bare acquiescence on the House climate bill, the nation's main agribusiness lobby declared it will try to kill climate legislation altogether in the Senate, using conservative rhetoric about a federal "power grab" and expressing doubt about whether human activities are causing global warming.
"In the past dozen years, three new diseases have decimated populations of amphibians, honeybees, and — most recently — bats. Increasingly, scientists suspect that low-level exposure to pesticides could be contributing to this rash of epidemics."
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