The government will soon decide whether to allow increasing the mix from the current 10% blend to as high as a 15% blend. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
Cheap oil makes switching to alternative
fuels such as ethanol less attractive.
Lester Graham reports that could affect
an upcoming decision about using more
ethanol:
Transcript
Cheap oil makes switching to alternative
fuels such as ethanol less attractive.
Lester Graham reports that could affect
an upcoming decision about using more
ethanol:
Crude oil prices spiked a little because of Iran’s long-range missile testing and revelations of a secret nuclear facility.
But analysts think for the next several months we’ll actually see oil prices go down – maybe to around $30 a barrel, less than half of what it is now.
And that could hurt demand for fuels such as ethanol.
But the government has mandated the nation produce more ethanol.
Dan Flynn is an analyst with the trading firm, Alaron.
“Obviously the government definitely wants to push this through. However, the price of crude oil and gasoline, if that goes down, generally people look not to look for alternative sources of energy.”
One way to use more ethanol is to mix higher amounts with gasoline.
The government will soon decide whether to allow increasing the mix from the current 10% blend to as high as a 15% blend.
Todd Krone researches corn for Targeted Growth,
a bio-energy company. Targeted Growth is tweaking corn
genetics to produce 'Sugarcorn,' a variety with high
amounts of sugar and biomass. The hope is the plants
can be converted into ethanol cheaply. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
Traditional corn varieties pollinate and send
energy into the kernels, which form sugar and starch. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
This corn ear shows one of Sugarcorn's key traits.
Bio-energy company Targeted Growth is perfecting corn varieties
that stop pollination and preserve sugar in the stalk instead of
creating starch in kernels. Researchers in public universities
such as the University of Illinois are conducting similar work. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
The federal government wants more
and more ethanol in our fuel supplies,
but it worries about how its made.
Most American ethanol is made from
corn kernels. That’s inefficient
and it makes the ethanol and food
industries compete for corn. The
government’s mandating we start making
ethanol out of things other than corn
kernels. Shawn Allee looks
at one effort to meet that mandate:
Transcript
The federal government wants more
and more ethanol in our fuel supplies,
but it worries about how its made.
Most American ethanol is made from
corn kernels. That’s inefficient
and it makes the ethanol and food
industries compete for corn. The
government’s mandating we start making
ethanol out of things other than corn
kernels. Shawn Allee looks
at one effort to meet that mandate:
I’m just outside an ethanol plant in central Indiana and its pretty much like most ethanol
plants. There’re a lot of semi-trucks going by and they’re loaded with yellow corn kernels.
Most ethanol plants grind corn kernels for starch, they let that starch turn into sugar, then
they brew the sugary juice into ethanol. Now, this whole process would be easier and
cheaper if we could make ethanol directly from sugary plants instead of starchy grain
kernels like corn.
Pretty quick here, I’m gonna meet a guy who’s trying to make corn a plant that’s easy to
grow in the Midwest but produces sweet juice – not starchy corn kernels.
“If you walk over here, these are our sugar corn hybrids.”
I’m with Todd Krone. He’s a researcher with a company called Targeted Growth. He walks me
through a test plot of a plant nicknamed ‘Sugarcorn.’ He pulls off a ear of corn and pulls back the
leaves.
(sound of leaves being pulled back)
The ear is almost bare.
Allee: “There’re just a few stray kernels developing, very few.”
Krone: “Yep. A few got through.”
Krone says this plant avoids making corn kernels. Instead, it puts energy and sugar into the
stalk. He can prove it with a taste test – right here in field.
He snips a piece of stalk.
(sound of snipping)
And pulls out a little press.
Krone: “You squeeze some of the juice to see how much sugar’s there. It’s up to you, if
you like, you could put on on your finger and taste. Is there sweetness?”
Allee: “Yeah, it’s definitely sweet. It’s definitely got a sweet tinge to it.”
Krone: “It might be a bit sweeter than pop might be.”
Krone says tests show Sugarcorn juice is as sweet as juice from sugar cane. He says this means
America could have a new plant that boosts ethanol production – but doesn’t compete with food,
and uses equipment farmers already have.
Krone: “For the farmer, not much changes until harvest when some logistics still need to
be worked out.”
Allee: “Obviously if you’re selling a lot of this corn, you’d be making a good deal of profit,
hopefully, what’s in it for the rest of us in terms of the success or failure of this, for drivers
and everybody else?”
Krone: “I would say, hopefully, it results in cheaper ethanol that can compete with cheap
oil. And then meeting that mandate to get more and more ethanol produced.”
Well, that’s the idea, but Targeted Growth would have to change more than just corn plants to
succeed. They’de have to change how at least some ethanol companies do business. And some
ethanol companies have some tough questions about it.
“How could you handle sugarcorn? How would you store it?”
This is Jeff Harts. He works at Central Indiana Ethanol. Harts says he likes the idea of using
sweet corn juice to make ethanol – it could be efficient. But he worries about getting enough to
run an expensive operation like his. He has no problem finding corn kernels.
“It’s a consistent flow of corn and we need that consistent flow to keep going. That’s why
we have storage, the farmers have storage. That’s why we have a local grain elevator
network to ship corn to us to keep that flow steady 12 months out of the year.”
Harts’ company might be a bit reluctant to change right away, but ethanol producers will have
find alternatives to the corn kernel. The government is capping how much ethanol can come
from corn starch.
As those requirements phase in, alternatives like Sugarcorn might look sweeter than they do
now.
Sysco - a major food distributor - is part of a year-long government funded
project. They're running seventeen of their forklifts using hydrogen powered fuel cells. (Photo by Mark Brush)
This is how the hydrogen arrives at the Sysco warehouse in Michigan. The hydrogen is made in Megog, Quebec. (Photo by Mark Brush)
Six years ago, President Bush proposed to end our addiction to oil by building a hydrogen
economy. At the time, driving a hydrogen powered car didn’t seem that far off. But today, the
reality of mass produced hydrogen powered cars has hit some bumps in the road. Mark Brush
looks at the challenges ahead:
Transcript
Six years ago, President Bush proposed to end our addiction to oil by building a hydrogen
economy. At the time, driving a hydrogen powered car didn’t seem that far off. But today, the
reality of mass produced hydrogen powered cars has hit some bumps in the road. Mark Brush
looks at the challenges ahead:
It’s all about the fuel cell. The cell converts hydrogen gas into electricity that can power up a
motor. And when that’s done – the only thing that comes out of the tail pipe is crystal, clean
water.
So there’s a lot of enthusiasm to build hydrogen powered cars. If you live in Southern California,
you can drive a hydrogen powered car right now.
(sound of a hydrogen car commercial)
But you can’t buy this car. You can only lease it. And you have to have a pretty good map.
There are only 2 places where you can fill the car up with hydrogen.
And that highlights just one of the challenges facing the hydrogen car right now. There’s no
infrastructure – no network of gas stations – to support it.
Steven Chu heads up the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy.
“It’s an infrastructure that is as extensive as the infrastructure for gasoline and diesel. And that
doesn’t come overnight.”
Chu wants to eliminate all the research money for hydrogen powered cars and trucks. He says
there are too many big problems to solve. There’s the infrastructure problem. Fuel cells are
expensive. The cheapest way to make hydrogen right now releases pollution. And there are
problems with storing the gas.
In an interview with MIT’s Technology Review, Energy Secretary Chu referred to these problems
as the four miracles. And that didn’t go over too well with some people.
“A miracle? Really? How many miracles have you seen? I’m not sure I’ve seen a real miracle in
my life.”
Levi Thompson directs the Hydrogen Energy Technology Laboratory at the University of
Michigan.
He says talking about these problems as miracles sends the wrong message. He admits, there
are some big puzzles to solve. But he’s convinced scientists can solve them.
“If you believe this is the savior, that this is going to transform the way we do things, I think you
have a responsibility to invest – even though that you see that it’s far behind.”
Thompson says the ultimate goal for a hydrogen economy is to get the hydrogen from water
using electricity from renewable resources like wind, solar, and hydro-power. So you get the
clean burning gas you’re looking for.
It can be done today, but it’s expensive. Thompson thinks it’ll get cheaper as alternative sources
of electricity become more widespread.
The Energy Department doesn’t want to give up on hydrogen research altogether. Secretary Chu
says fuel cells do make sense on a small scale – like to power fork lifts in a warehouse.
(sound of a warehouse and forklift)
Here at this Sysco warehouse in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a mini hydrogen experiment is
underway.
Sysco is a major food distributor. This warehouse is part of a year-long government funded
project. They’re running seventeen of their forklifts using hydrogen powered fuel cells made by a
company called Plug Power.
Darin VanDuyn is with Sysco. He says, mostly, they’ve had a good experience with these fuel
cells.
“We’ve had about 80 hours of lost time due to repair – minor failures, things like that – but nothing
major has disrupted their operation.”
VanDuyn says the company hasn’t decided yet whether they’ll move forward with the fuel cell
program. But policy makers say real-world experiments like these move us closer to mass
produced hydrogen vehicles.
Even though the Obama Administration wants to cut funding for hydrogen powered cars and
trucks, Congress holds the purse – and has the final say. So far, it looks like Congress will
continue to fully fund the research.
Automakers say the ups and downs of federal funding don’t affect their plans. Several
companies say they’ll start selling hydrogen powered cars in 6 to 8 years – and they’ll let the
market decide the fate of the hydrogen economy.
Colorado Springs pumps water through the Rocky Mountains into town (Photo courtesy of the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau)
Out West, a lot of cities figure many more people will be moving in over the next few decades. Water engineers wish those people would bring along all the water they’ll need, but of course they won’t. Shawn Allee reports these cities want to pipe more water from far away, and some people think that’s a bad idea:
Transcript
Out West, a lot of cities figure many more people will be moving in over the next few
decades. Water engineers wish those people would bring along all the water they’ll
need, but of course they won’t. Shawn Allee reports these cities want to pipe more
water from far away, and some people think that’s a bad idea:
The air in Colorado Springs is usually so dry it quickly chaps your lips.
What gives? Colorado Springs sounds wet enough.
“There’re really no springs in Colorado Springs, so when you start talking
about water, it’s a divergence between our name and reality. Sounds like we
had a lot, and in reality we didn’t.”
This is Matt Mayberry, Colorado Spring’s historian.
I’ve heard about this massive water pipeline project the town’s cooking up, and I was
curious just how long the city’s worked to quench its thirst.
Mayberry’s got an exhaustive book on that with an exhaustive title.
“Blah, blah, blah … the emergence and appropriation of rights in Colorado
Springs.”
The crib notes version?
Early on, buffalo manure poisoned Colorado Spring’s creek, so people dug wells.
Then, the wells got infested with grasshoppers.
And the town grew, and grew, and grew again.
“Very soon you had to bring water from further away, and ultimately to the
Western Slope which is a couple hours drive of here.”
Today, Colorado Springs pipes water through the Rocky Mountain range.
Doing the extraordinary for water is kinda ordinary for Colorado Springs.
Its latest pipeline project is called the Southern Delivery System, and it’ll pump nearly
80 million gallons into town each year – and it’ll pump that water forty five miles –
completely uphill.
Impressive, but some people are asking tough questions about it.
“Our concern with this project is the greenhouse gas emissions that it would
contribute to.”
Stacy Tellinghuisen is with Western Resource Advocates, a Colorado environmental
group.
She says there’s a connection between pumping water uphill and a large carbon
footprint.
“Water is heavy. Pumping it over a great distance takes a lot of energy, and
in the process it would require something along the lines of 60 MW of power,
which is about a tenth of a power plant.”
And, for the most part, the utility burns natural gas and coal to generate power. Both
emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Tellinghuisen says Western cities are considering at least five other water pipeline
projects, some with even larger carbon footprints.
She wants Colorado Springs to set an example by using dedicated low-carbon sources
like wind power for its water pumps.
I ask the Colorado Springs Utilities about that.
Keith Riley helped plan the Southern Delivery System.
“We think there are some ways we can minimize the carbon footprint by
looking at some new technologies.”
Riley says there were lots of environmental regulations to wade through before the
Southern Delivery System got approved.
But a large carbon footprint doesn’t disqualify utility projects.
Riley says, even if carbon were considered, the project might have gone forward
anyway because the city’s expected to grow over the next few decades.
“Water is the essential element for all of us, so when it comes to that level of
sustaining our own lives, then you get to some trade-offs on what we’re
willing to do to keep ourselves alive where we we live, where our cities are.
No matter what happens, we’ve got to move water to Colorado Springs, and
we’re uphill from the river, so we’ve got to get the water uphill one way or
another.”
Riley says Colorado Springs Utilities is considering low-carbon renewable power for its
new pipeline.
But it’ll be expensive, and no one’s stepped forward with all the money.
Other Western cities are engineering clever ways of moving loads of water around,
too. And it’ll be a political and financial challenge for them to pay for the carbon
footprint.
Wilson City Farm is part of Chicago's Resource Center, and Tim Wilson is the garden manager. The 1.25 acre plot produces eighty varieties of eleven crops. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
City Farm occupies a vacant lot owned by the City of Chicago. It lies at the heart of a fast-changing neighborhood. There are new condo buildings and non-profit housing centers cropping up alongside the Cabrini Green Housing Project. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
City Farm's greenhouse uses light-weight replaceable materials because the managers plan on moving every few years. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
Urban farming is supposed to be a solution to getting fresh, locally-produced food to city folk.
The movement’s taking off because a lot of cities have empty, vacant lots to plant on, but there’s a problem: city governments or developers won’t let growers stay on those lots forever.
Shawn Allee met one urban farmer who’s not worried about losing the farm:
Transcript
Urban farming is supposed to be a solution to getting fresh, locally-produced food to city folk.
The movement’s taking off because a lot of cities have empty, vacant lots to plant on, but there’s a problem: city governments or developers won’t let growers stay on those lots forever.
Shawn Allee met one urban farmer who’s not worried about losing the farm:
Ken Dunn’s City Farm looks less like a traditional farm than a construction site.
There’s fence around an acre or so of soil. There are two small sheds.
And there’s a greenhouse – but it’s not glass or anything – its plastic strung over a bunch of metal tubes.
These are available commercially for about 1,500 dollars and will last for many years. This is the third year this one’s been up.
Dunn makes no apology for the make-shift feel.
“This is a mobile farmstead. Our fence that surrounds this property has been in three locations in the past twenty years as have the tool shed, and office trailer. So, everything here can be picked up and moved within a week or, if necessary, within a couple days.”
In fact, Dunn’s planning on it. He’s on land owned by the City of Chicago, and he has to move next year.
“Our deal with them is that we are occupying it until they sell the property. I think it will be having luxury condominiums. I think they have a price tag of 6 million dollars on this acre. As tax payers we have to take the six million.”
But Dunn’s not worried – he’s lined up another lot to plant on.
Dunn thinks more urban farmers should be just as mobile as he is by keeping their equipment light and scouting for the next available growing space.
Here’s his argument: City governments or developers might let you squat on vacant land for a while, but you can’t count on them selling it to you at an affordable price – or just giving it you.
Seems reasonable enough, but I thought I’d ask urban farming groups how they take this mobile farm idea.
“In my opinion, it should be permanent.”
This is Erika Allen.
She heads the Chicago branch of a group called Growing Power.
“It shouldn’t be something that you have access to some land for a few years and then have to move. In my mind, that’s not agriculture.”
Allen says across the country, urban farms have provided fresh food and even jobs.
She says mobile farming kind of let’s city governments off easy; if urban farms are so useful, cities should help them own farmland.
“I think once we were able to prove you can grow food in the city and it can be productive and beautiful, then it’s an issue of policy. What’s the priority? Why aren’t we relegating some of this space just for urban agriculture?”
Ken Dunn says he’s heard this criticism before. He calls his mobile farming approach a little more realistic.
Dunn says rural farmers can’t grow everything they want, however they want; they have to adjust to the landscape, soil conditions, and weather.
He says he’s just adjusting to an urban reality: real-estate markets value commercial and residential property more than farmland.
“We have to operate this sustainably. That is, working within the forces that are operating instead of hoping to always get 15 years in some hidden corner or somewhere and it might turn into less because someone comes in overnight and bulldozes your project. So, sustainability means keeping operative from year to year with no setbacks. A planned move is no set-back at all.”
With that, Dunn has to leave.
It’s planting season and he and his staff have a lot of work. They want this crop to be special, since it could be their last growing season on this vacant lot.
Bus lines like Megabus are attracting new riders with cheap rates, direct routes, and perks like free wi-fi. (Photo by Tamara Keith)
Each bus can transport 81 people, most of whom would have driven instead. (Photo by Tamara Keith)
Buses are one of the most environmentally friendly ways to travel. But for years, the bus has had an image problem. The Environment Report’s Tamara Keith tells us that could be changing:
Transcript
Buses are one of the most environmentally friendly ways to travel. But for years, the bus has had an image problem. The Environment Report’s Tamara Keith tells us that could be changing:
I swear I’m not a snob, but up until a couple of months ago I wouldn’t have been caught dead on a bus. Come on, the thought of being trapped for hours with potentially smelly strangers on some rundown, grimy bus –well– it’s just not all that appealing.
But, there’s a new genre of motor coach travel out there and it’s making the intercity bus cool again (or maybe cool for the first time).
In a downtown Washington DC parking lot, Lauren Kessler is waiting to board a Bolt Bus to New York City. It’s a shiny black and red bus with a bold lightning bolt on the side.
“I’ve never taken Greyhound. I would take Amtrak or fly but those are both much more expensive.”
What Kessler doesn’t know is this is a Greyhound bus. The company launched the Bolt brand last spring. Giselle Carr doesn’t realize it either, until I point out the fine print on the side of the bus: “operated by Greyhound.”
“I did not know that. Yeah it says right there, operator Greyhound. Oh, so they’re changing their strategy. Interesting.”
It’s not your father’s Greyhound. Gone are bus terminals. Bolt picks up curbside in just a few major east coast cities. Delivering passengers from one happening downtown to another with no stops in between. It’s cheaper than the traditional bus lines and there are some pretty nice amenities too, says Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh.
“We have free wi-fi, extended leg room, power plug ins. It’s a very sleek brand.”
And she says it’s been an incredibly successful brand.
“We actually broke even financially in May 2008, which is just a couple months after launching which was phenomenal and exceeded all our expectations. And every month we see a larger ridership than the month before.”
Bolt isn’t the only one. MegaBus, operated by Coach USA, started in the Midwest in 2006. It now serves 14 cities with its double-decker wi-fi enabled buses. Each bus holds 81 people, and, Coach USA President Dale Moser says, most of them would have driven if not for the bus.
“And I would have told you 3 years ago that it was going to be a challenge to change a culture and get Americans out of their automobile. But we’re finding that there is a large contingency out there that is looking for something like this and it just continues to grow.”
These bus lines can thank regulars like Raphael Fuchs-Simon for their success. If there was a uniform for a hipster, it might just be what he’s wearing: red framed 80s sunglasses, a soccer jersey and one of those Peruvian Alpaca sweaters.
“Sometimes I drive but there’s no point. It’s 22 dollars dude. Get out of here. It’s like a lunchtime meal in Manhattan.”
He’s pretty stoked about the green credentials, that come with his chosen mode of travel. Joe Schwieterman has actually crunched the numbers. He’s a transportation professor at DePaul University in Chicago.
“You can get 200, 300 even more passenger miles per gallon of fuel burned and you just compare to that to a private automobile, it can be a 10-fold increase in fuel efficiency.”
And, Schwieterman says, just in the last couple of years intercity bus transportation has had a remarkable revival.
“The growth has been roughly about 8 percent a year, so the mode is growing much faster than air travel or automobile travel or even rail travel. The bus kind of stands alone for an industry that’s growing in some pretty tough economic times.”
That’s even with gas costing just half what it did last summer. For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.
Employees wrap office furniture in blankets as one element of a green shipping method used by Perkins Specialized Transportation to cut carbon emissions. (Photo courtesy of Perkins)
Companies are looking at new ways to
use less packaging and save fuel. It’s all
considered “carbon reduction,” but it comes
down to saving money. Lester Graham reports
on a couple of companies finding some success:
Transcript
Companies are looking at new ways to
use less packaging and save fuel. It’s all
considered “carbon reduction,” but it comes
down to saving money. Lester Graham reports
on a couple of companies finding some success:
Many environmentalists love to hate Wal-Mart. But, in recent years, Wal-Mart has been
encouraging its suppliers to find ways to reduce environmental impacts.
Now, that’s important because Wal-Mart is huge. As its suppliers go green, it’s having a
ripple effect on the suppliers’ suppliers and all their competitors.
So here’s what happens. Companies that come up with ways to reduce environmental
impacts are rewarded. Wal-Mart gives them more store shelf space and promotions.
Rand Waddoups is with Wal-Mart. He says electronics company Hewlitt-Packard took
the challenge to a whole new level.
“They came back with this idea to completely remove the packaging from the laptops that they’re selling us, and instead have a messenger bag that we give the customers to take home with them. In addition to that, it’s Energy Star product, it’s Ross compliant – which is reduction of hazardous substances. It just ended up being a really great laptop.”
It’s not just Wal-Mart and its suppliers that are trying to reduce packaging.
Other manufacturers and shippers are finding ways to get rid of all the cardboard and
styrofoam and plastic wrapping.
The office furniture company Haworth worked with the shipper Perkins Specialized
Transportation. Instead of boxing up chairs and desks with cardboard and styrofoam,
the companies decided to test other ways of shipping. Greg Maiers is the the shipper,
Perkins.
“About a third of their shipments we converted to a blanket-wrapping or using pads to secure the product in decking inside the trailers, as opposed to the way they had been doing it, with cardboard boxes.”
So instead of stacking bulky boxes, they just put the furniture in, put in a wood deck,
and put in another layer on top of that – all cushioned with pads.
The tests came up with three results. One: they didn’t have to buy cardboard boxing.
That made their retail customers happy because they didn’t have to deal with throwing
all that stuff away or trying to recycle it. Two: they could actually fit more office
furniture on the truck, so they didn’t need as many trucks on the road. Three: it does
take more labor to pack in the furniture and wrap it in blankets, stack the decks and so
on, so that cost a little more, but remember, there were fewer trucks, and that savings
more than offset that additional labor cost. So overall, shipping was cheaper.
Greg Maiers says corporate America is learning, and changing.
“Many, many industries are clearly getting the indication that there is an environmental impact that’s going on, there’s a change, and we have to address it. And many, many companies are doing it.”
And a lot of those companies are finding it’s also good for the bottom line.
Mount Moran and Jackson Lake at Grand Teton National Park. (Photo by Kimberly Finch courtesy of National Park Service)
Even our most remote national parks are
polluted. That’s according to a six-year government
study of parks from the Arctic to the Mexican border.
Rebecca Williams reports:
Transcript
Even our most remote national parks are
polluted. That’s according to a six-year government
study of parks from the Arctic to the Mexican border.
Rebecca Williams reports:
You might think it’d be safe to eat a fish you catch in a lake way out in
the middle of nowhere. But the new study found high levels of mercury, DDT
and other chemicals in some fish in national parks. Levels that make the
fish unsafe for both people and wildlife.
Dixon Landers is a researcher with the Environmental Protection Agency. He
says the team also found low levels of 70 different chemicals in snow, water
and plants in national parks.
“There’s probably no place left in the world that has no sign of human
activities and largely because of atmospheric transport.”
Landers says that means some chemicals get transported in the air and end up
hundreds or thousands of miles away from their source. He says chemicals
from nearby cities and farms also end up polluting the parks.
The nation’s first high-speed ferry will soon carry passengers and cars across Lake Michigan between Muskegon and Milwaukee. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:
Transcript
The nation’s first high-speed ferry will soon carry passengers
and cars across Lake Michigan between Muskegon and Milwaukee. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:
It took six hours to cross Lake Michigan in 1970, the last year a
passenger and auto ferry linked Muskegon and Milwaukee. The new ferry,
the Lake Express, will make the trip in about a third of the time. The
catamaran features a lightweight aluminum construction and four engines
with a combined 12,000 horsepower. Developer David Lubar says the biggest
customers are likely to be vacationing families and people who want to
bypass the Chicago commute.
“People are highly frustrated driving through Chicago, you don’t know if it’s going to take a half
hour or two hours.”
Lake Express is currently under construction and has a launch date of June
1st, 2004.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tracy Samilton.
For the first time, demand is high for an environmentally friendly
car. Honda’s new Insight now has a two-month waiting list. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Halpert has the story:
The government will soon decide whether to allow increasing the mix from the current 10% blend to as high as a 15% blend. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
