Tag: auto

Turning the Rust Belt Green

  • The creation of 'green-collar' jobs may help the Rust Belt's unemployment problems (Photo by Lester Graham)

The nation’s economy is in decline, and
the middle states that make up the Rust Belt have
been hit particularly hard with job losses. Some
Midwest states have turned to a new type of
manufacturing and the so-called green collar jobs
it creates. Marianne Holland reports:

Transcript

The nation’s economy is in decline, and
the middle states that make up the Rust Belt have
been hit particularly hard with job losses. Some
Midwest states have turned to a new type of
manufacturing and the so-called green collar jobs
it creates. Marianne Holland reports:

Nationwide, just over half the states have passed some sort of laws or incentives geared at
getting green manufacturing jobs. In the nation’s rust belt,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio already have green policy in place.

Ron Pernick is a co-founder of CleanEdge. That’s a national green manufacturing research
organization. Pernick says those jobs, are in one of the major growth sectors in American
manufacturing. They’re growing at a rate of about 30% each year. In Iowa, property tax abatements are given to green manufacturing. In Illinois, the state has passed laws requiring utilities to get a portion of their energy from wind or solar power. Pernick says public policy translates to more jobs.

“If you think about creating new industry, you can’t export development. You’ve got to
hire local people to put in the wind turbines, to install the solar farms, to put solar on top
of rooftops. And those jobs can never be exported.”

But other states have been slow to change policy to embrace green manufacturing. In Michigan, green energy legislation has been tied up in
the State Senate. An in states like Indiana, there are no laws or business incentives even on the table to attract the green
manufacturing industry.

Indiana State Representative Ryan Dvorak blames the big power companies for lobbying against incentives to create green jobs.

“I’m not sure why they have so much sway in the state with the different legislators but
they don’t want to give up any ground basically. Obviously they make their money by
generating and selling electricity, so any loss in market share, they’re motivated to
stop that legislation.”

The power companies say they’re just looking out for their customers.
Angeline Protegere is a spokesperson for Duke Energy. Protegere says renewable energy is
moving forward without state regulations. She says Duke understands that some day
regulations will come. But she says that will be at a high risk.

“We constantly have to balance our environmental responsibilities with our economic
responsibilities to our customers because they pay for the cost of pollution control
through their bills.”

And the power companies’ lobbyists persuade legislators it’s in the best interests of the people to block incentives for green jobs. Representative Dvorak thinks his colleagues are being misled.

Jesse Kharbanda is with the Hoosier Environmental Council. He says in his state and others that ignore the green jobs opportunity, workers are being left behind.

“We’re obviously in this situation where Indiana has historically had a formidable
manufacturing base and that base has been continuously eroded because of globalization.
We’re not in any time going to fundamentally change Indiana’s economy and so we have
to deal with the labor force as it is. We have a good, technically minded labor base, but
the question is: what sectors are we creating in the state to employ that technical labor
base. And one of them ought to be the green technology sector.”

Kharbanda says it’s a state’s public policy, tax breaks, and other incentives that will attract the
most green collar jobs. Without those incentives, unemployed factory workers in Rust Belt
states will have to hope for some kind of recovery in manufacturing, or take lower paying, service sector jobs.

For The Environment Report, I’m Marianne Holland.

Related Links

Big Deal in Solar Power

  • Dish stirling solar power system at the Arizona Public Service Solar Test and Research Center (Photo courtesy of the US Department of Energy)

Since the 1970’s, solar power has been called the
next big thing. But not a whole lot has really come of it.
Rebecca Williams reports that could be changing:

Transcript

Since the 1970’s, solar power has been called the
next big thing. But not a whole lot has really come of it.
Rebecca Williams reports that could be changing:

With oil going for more than 100 bucks a barrel, the country’s seeing its
first major investment in solar.

The utility company Pacific Gas and Electric has signed a multi- billion
dollar deal. It’s planning to build five solar power plants in the Mojave
Desert.

The US has been mostly reliant on coal, nuclear and hydropower. But more
renewable sources such as wind and solar are coming online.

Jack Jenkins-Stark is the CFO of BrightSource Energy. It’s the company that
will build the plants.

“The energy mix of the U.S. or the world is always going to be a combination
of many, many technologies and solar is clearly going to be one of those
technologies.”

He says three things are driving solar’s rise: worries about global
warming, soaring energy prices, and better technology.

For The Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Related Links

Hydrogen Powered Buses

Ford Motor Company is rolling out a small fleet
of hydrogen powered shuttle buses in the US and Canada.
The company says its one small step toward a future
without oil. Dustin Dwyer reports:

Transcript

Ford Motor Company is rolling out a small fleet
of hydrogen powered shuttle buses in the US and Canada.
The company says its one small step toward a future
without oil. Dustin Dwyer reports:

Ford will have a total of 30 hydrogen powered shuttle buses spread around North America, from Florida to
Vancouver, British Columbia.

Most test projects with hydrogen vehicles these days involve a fuel cell. But Ford is using hydrogen to
power a mostly conventional internal combustion engine.

Ford says that means there’s less research to be done, and the buses could be mass produced
earlier.

But Ford’s John Lapetz says the problem is still: where would you fill it up?

“Realistically, you gotta look at the infrastructure to refuel these kind of vehicles, you gotta look at the public policies that go around those kinds
of things, because you’re talking about not a significant change in the vehicle, but a significant change in
the way the vehicle is received in the community.”

Another problem is cost. Ford says each of its hydrogen buses now cost 250 thousand dollars.

For the The Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.

Related Links

Ethanol: Grass Better Than Corn

  • A lot of people are banking on a prairie grass called switchgrass as a future raw material for ethanol. (Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources)

Researchers have found using grass instead of corn might be a better
way to make ethanol. Rebecca Williams reports:

Transcript

Researchers have found using grass instead of corn might be a better
way to make ethanol. Rebecca Williams reports:


Ethanol is showing up in more gas stations around the country. Right
now that ethanol is made from corn. But critics say corn ethanol
takes a lot of energy to produce… so there’s not a huge energy gain
from making it.


Ethanol made from grass might be a better bet.


New research finds that making ethanol from switchgrass is much
more efficient than making it from corn. The study’s published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


In the study, researchers got almost five and a half times more energy
out of the switchgrass than it took to grow, harvest and turn it into
fuel. They say that’s a lot better than corn.


But there’s one big obstacle. The technology to make ethanol from
switchgrass on a commercial scale is still being developed.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Related Links

End of the Internal Combustion Engine

  • Fuel cell-powered cars will be much simpler and cheaper to build than internal combustion engine-powered vehicles. (Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company)

Hydrogen fuel cells have been billed as the next big thing for cutting
down on vehicle emissions. Cars that run on these fuel cells emit only
water. Automakers are investing heavily in the technology, and there
are still some major obstacles. But as Dustin Dwyer reports, there is
at least one big advantage for automakers to push fuel cells:

Transcript

Hydrogen fuel cells have been billed as the next big thing for cutting
down on vehicle emissions. Cars that run on these fuel cells emit only
water. Automakers are investing heavily in the technology, and there
are still some major obstacles. But as Dustin Dwyer reports, there is
at least one big advantage for automakers to push fuel cells:


Of course, automakers want to be seen working on something that could
be good for the environment, and people in the industry will tell you
there are a number of reasons for pushing fuel cells. But there’s one
reason that might matter more than all the others.


(Sound of music…”money, money, money”)


Yep, money.


And if you don’t believe ABBA, you can just take it from Larry Burns.
He’s the head of research and development at General Motors. GM says
it’s spent more than a billion dollars developing fuel cell technology.
That’s money a company like GM can’t afford to waste.


At a recent energy symposium, Burns broke it all down, and talked about
the real reason GM is involved in the technology:


“First of all, we want to accelerate industry growth, for business
reasons. In fact, if I was up here telling you we were doing it for
reasons other than business reasons, you shouldn’t take me sincerely.”


So, what are those business reasons?


For Larry Burns it starts with the fact that today only 12 percent of
people worldwide own a car. To get the other 88 percent, Burns says
future vehicles need to be cheap and clean.


Some will debate whether hydrogen vehicles would truly be clean. They
say, at best, hydrogen just shifts the pollution upstream to the power
plant.


As for the cheap part, that’s also a problem. Right now, prototype fuel
cell cars cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to make. But fuel cells
have a few things going for them on the cost front. Take Ford’s new
HySeries Drive Hybrid Edge prototype.


Engineer Mujeeb Ijaz looks under the hood:


“So I guess the first thing you’ll notice when you look under the hood
of the Edge is it doesn’t have a lot of equipment here. In fact, it’s
quite empty.”


It’s empty because all the important stuff, including the fuel cell, is
tucked in a sleek package hidden underneath the vehicle.


The fuel cell itself is only about six inches high, and about as big
around as a coffee table. That’s an incredibly simple design compared
to today’s complicated and clunky internal combustion engines:


“There’s a lot of technology that goes into it, but from a fundamental
standpoint, when you lay out a fuel cell and you lay out an engine,
we’re not dealing with a lot of unique parts.”


So, unlike an engine that has to be machined and assembled in different
ways for most vehicles around the world, a fuel cell only has a few
parts that get stacked together the same way every time. That means
once they ramp up to mass production, fuel cells could save automakers
a lot of, well…


(Sound of music…”money, it’s a gas”)


But before automakers can save all that fuel cell money, they still
have to answer all the questions about where the hydrogen itself comes
from, how to get it into gas stations, and how to store it in the
vehicle.


Automakers say they can make it work. But not everyone agrees. Joseph
Romm is an expert on energy issues, and he says, a lot of the problems
with hydrogen fuel cells might be out of automakers’ hands:


“Each of them probably requires a major technology breakthrough, and
you just don’t know. You might see a breakthrough in five years, you
might not see a breakthrough for fifty years.”


Romm wrote a book called The Hype About Hydrogen. He says fuel
cells have long been thought to be just over the horizon:


“Fuel cells are always just 10 or 20 years away, and so it allows the
car company to seem like they’re doing something for the environment,
without actually having to do anything.”


Romm says he’d bet on better battery technology and biofuels to cut
down on gas use.


Regardless of who’s right, what’s clear is that the auto industry could
be on the verge of a revolutionary change, one that could be good news
for the environment: the end of the internal combustion engine.


It won’t happen just to make people feel good, or to save the
environment.


It’ll happen for a reason you can bank on.


(Music)


For the Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.

Related Links

Eliminating Mercury Switches in Cars

Environmental groups say they’ve reached a landmark deal with auto and steel makers and the EPA that could prevent tons of mercury from getting into the environment in the future. The GLRC’s Tracy Samilton reports:

Transcript

Environmental groups say they’ve reached a landmark deal with auto
and steel makers and the EPA that could prevent tons of mercury from
getting into the environment in the future. The GLRC’s Tracy Samilton
reports:


The auto industry completely phased out mercury switches in lights and
antilock breaks in 2002, but as many as 60 million of the devices could
still be on the road today.


When a car is finally scrapped and melted down at the steel mill, the
mercury is released into the air. Auto makers and steel plants have
tentatively agreed to share the cost of a national retrieval program to
remove mercury switches from vehicles before they’re recycled.


The Ecology Center was instrumental in brokering the deal. The Center
says the program could potentially reduce overall mercury pollution by
ten percent, and keep 80 tons of mercury out of the environment. The
deal is expected to be finalized within a few weeks.


For the GLRC, I’m Tracy Samilton.

Related Links

Ford Motor Shifts Gears?

The head of the Ford Motor Company is petitioning President Bush to convene a summit on U.S. energy policy and the role automakers should play. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Quinn Klinefelter has more:

Transcript

The head of the Ford Motor Company is petitioning President Bush to convene a summit on U.S. energy policy and the role automakers should play. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Quinn Klinefelter has more:


For much of the past decade, the auto industry has successfully lobbied Congress and the Administration against raising fuel economy standards which, automakers say, would force them ro raise prices.


Now, however, Ford Motor Company Chairman Bill Ford Jr. is requesting that the President hold a summit to discuss improving fuel mileage and limiting America’s dependence on oil.


Ford recently announced that roughly half of the models it offers would be available in hybrid form or other more economical versions by 2010. Ford supported the Bush Administration’s Energy Policy Act, but company officials say the country is in the midst of an energy crisis and the President must do more to help consumers.


White House officials say the President is considering the proposal.


For the GLRC, I’m Quinn Kleinfelter.

Related Links

Honda’s Soybean Solution Encourages Non-Gmo Farming

  • Honda is well known for its cars, but might soon be known as number one in non-GMO soybean exports. (Photo by Simon Cataudo)

Most people associate Honda with cars and motorcycles. But the company has an interesting sideline: as a cost-saving measure, they’ve been exporting soybeans from the U.S. to Japan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Nora Flaherty has more:

Transcript

Most people associate Honda with cars and motorcycles. But the company has
an interesting sideline: as a cost-saving measure, they’ve been exporting
soybeans from the US to Japan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Nora
Flaherty has more:


Honda started exporting the beans as a way to reuse the huge cargo
containers that would arrive at the plant filled with auto parts. Instead of
sending them back empty, they wanted to fill the containers with something that
they could sell, and soy beans were a good fit. Joe Hannisik is the manager
of the plant, called Happy Ohio, where the beans are processed for shipping.


“We basically contract production with about 250 to 280 farmers in Ohio and
southern Michigan, for contract production, back to Happy Ohio, for processing and shipment of
soybeans primarily to Japan the majority of them.”


Honda only buys beans that haven’t been genetically modified, because that’s
what the Japanese prefer. And Honda pays farmers a higher price for their
beans than they’d get on the open market. Hannisik says that this can make a
difference when farmers are making decisions about whether to plant
genetically modified seeds.


For the GLRC, I’m Nora Flaherty.

Related Links

Rust Belt City Desires High Tech Future

  • Wheels are turning both in young minds and innovative transportation. Both could help revive the Rust Belt. (Photo by Max Eggeling)

The loss of traditional manufacturing jobs has hit Great Lakes states hard in recent years. But some business owners believe they are on the cusp of creating a new type of manufacturing base. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant spent some time in one community that’s discussing how new businesses can provide a foundation for the future:

Transcript

The loss of traditional manufacturing jobs has hit Great Lakes states hard in recent
years. But some business owners believe they are on the cusp of creating a new type of
manufacturing base. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant spent some time in
one community that’s discussing how new businesses can provide a foundation for the
future:


Not long ago, there were lots of good-paying factory jobs in northeast Ohio. But the state
has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs in the past four years. Some business people and
academics are trying to shape a new economy for the region. Their efforts could be
symbolized by a little bird…


“I need a Sparrow, I need it…”


A sparrow is an electrically charged three-wheel motorcycle that’s fully covered in steel.
It looks like a tear drop… or maybe a gym shoe. David Ackerman isn’t sure if he’d pick
one in bright orange…


“…but look, there it goes, look at it go! Is that the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen? I
love it! It’s like something out of “sleeper.” But it’s very sleek and cool and futuristic…
Does it really go 70? Yeah, it goes 70….”


While Ohio and other Midwestern states might have a tough time competing globally in
the steel market, some economists believe innovative transportation is one way Ohio
could build a foundation for a new economy. The state has put millions of dollars into
fuel cell research, Honda is building hybrid cars in central Ohio, and newer companies
are working to make auto engines cleaner and more efficient.


Some of those business owners gathered with people from the community to discuss how
transportation technology could be part of the region’s future. Bob Chalfant of a
company called Comsense spoke on the panel. He says the technology they’re
developing could have a huge impact…


“…the benefits to Cleveland are jobs. We figure the total market for pressure sensors for
combustion applications is about 2.2 billion dollars.”


Chalfant’s company expects to create 2,000 jobs in Cleveland. But if businesses like
Comsense are going to girder the area’s new economy, they’re going to need educated
employees for their high tech manufacturing jobs. The problem is, many young educated
folks are leaving the Midwest.


Meredith Matthews is a public school teacher in inner city Cleveland. She says they’re
trying to train students for these kinds of jobs, but they need direction from these new
companies…


“I teach in the third world known as the Cleveland Public Schools. I’m introducing
myself, so that if anybody needs kids, we got ’em. If you want to stop by and talk to me,
I’ll show you how to get kids, I’ll show you how to get in the door.”


Local universities and community colleges already have some research and training in
fuel cell technology. But mechanic Phil Lane looks at Cleveland’s poverty rate, the
highest among all big cities in the nation, and wants these companies to start training kids
even younger…


“We need to grab kids in the second and third grade, particularly in the very bad
neighborhoods, before the neighborhood can get to the kid. That’s what we really need to
do.”


Lane says training poor children early would provide a real foundation for a new
economy in Cleveland. Many communities that have lost their job base are starting
similar conversations and searching for ways to fit in to the global marketplace.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Julie Grant.

Related Links

Sustainability Report Calls for Auto Improvements

A business group representing the world’s largest auto and oil companies has released a report that calls for more action to deal with the social and environmental impacts of cars and trucks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Poorman has more:

Transcript

A business group representing the world’s largest auto and oil
companies has released a report that calls for more action to deal with
the social and environmental impact of cars and trucks. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Poorman has more:

The report was developed through the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development. It calls for so-called “sustainable
mobility.” That includes controlling pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions and reducing traffic deaths and congestion. Louis Dale with
General Motors worked on the report.


“There are about 800 million vehicles in the world today. By 2030,
just about 25 years from now, there will be almost a doubling of that.
Probably at least 1.5 billion vehicles.”


Dale says making environmental and safety improvements will help avoid
a backlash from government or customers. Dan Becker is with the Sierra
Club. He says the report is nice. But the companies could do more now.


“Hybrid cars are one example, but better engines, better
transmissions, better aerodynamics. The auto industry needs to take
these technologies off the shelf and put them on their vehicles.”


The industry report says that some improvements can be made now, but
effective cuts in greenhouse gas emissions will have to wait until well
after 2030.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bill Poorman.

Related Links