What the E.P.A.’s Ruling Means for Business

The Environmental Protection Agency ruled that carbon dioxide, a suspected cause of global warming, is an air pollutant that it is legally bound to regulate, a decision likely to have a vast impact on the U.S. economy and the way American companies do business. It is also a boon for cleantech, and may turn investors away from carbon intensive industries for good. More

GM to Convert $48 Billion Debt to Equity

The Obama administration has directed General Motors Corp to prepare a new debt restructuring plan that would convert all of the $48 billion the automaker owes bondholders and its major union into equity. The U.S. Treasury, which has provided $13.4 billion in emergency funding to keep GM operating since the start of the year, has indicated that it could also convert those taxpayer-backed loans into GM stock, the sources told Reuters. More

Small Wind Could Be Big Business for Midwest

That wind that whips across the prairie could be part of the clean energy solution for many Minnesota homeowners, through what's known as "small wind" power. That's differentiated from the large turbines that stand in formation on wind farms across the Midwest. Prices are dropping and federal help for homeowners looking to make their own electricity is available in the form of tax incentives. More

Germany Must 'Do Everything' to Save GM's Opel, Steinmeier Says

Germany must do all it can to save General Motors Corp.’s Opel unit to help the industrial base survive the recession, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said as a presented his party’s program for Sept. 27 elections. "Germany must stay the No. 1 production center and economic motor for Europe, that’s the basis of our wealth," Steinmeier said in the text of a speech in Berlin to about 3,000 party members. More

UAW, Fiat Likely to Hold Key Stakes in New Chrysler

The UAW and Italy's Fiat S.p.A. could be Chrysler LLC's leading shareholders if the struggling U.S. automaker wins the concessions requested by President Barack Obama's automotive task force by April 30, a source close to negotiations told Automotive News. Stakes held by Chrysler's existing shareholders--majority owner Cerberus Capital Management LP and 20 percent minority owner Daimler AG--would be "zeroed" as part of the financial restructuring, the source said. More

Hoping to Clean Up

The state that put the world on wheels wants to become a leader in the new clean tech economy. State officials are betting on it, and the recent announcement of a slew of new investments by automotive battery companies promises to significantly boost Michigan's efforts. However, the state is still in the early stages of developing an industry focused on technologies for alternative energy, pollution control, recycling and energy conservation. More

Gates Continues to Oppose Split Tanker Buy

If there was any confusion about U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s position on the possibility of a split buy of Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force, he is taking pains to fix it. "I am laying my body down across the tracks" in opposition to it, he told an audience of officers at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. More

Coalition Launches 'Make it in America' Campaign

The Apollo Alliance on April 15 launched a broad-based campaign to restore millions of American jobs with the release of a comprehensive roadmap for rebuilding U.S. manufacturing capacity to meet the clean energy needs of the future. The Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan (GreenMAP) lays out aggressive steps to scale up production of American-made clean energy systems and components while making U.S. factories more energy efficient. More