More of the Green Stuff

Been busy this morning, but didn't want to overlook these:

— USAToday has a story about three companies that have made technological advances in solar, wind, and geothermal energy production. It's definitely worth the read if you're interested in alternative energy. (It even includes a simple explanation of how these forms of energy are "collected.")

— On a similar note, NPR did a story about president-elect Barack Obama's so-called "green team," picking Nobel laureate Steven Chu to lead the Energy Department.

"Obama said his energy appointees will aim to make public buildings more efficient, modernize the electricity grid, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and preserve natural resources."

The story notes that Chu has been an advocate for reseearch into global warming and the need for carbon-neutral renewable sources of energy.

— NYT's science blog Dot Earth the last meteorological year — from December through November — was cooler than recent years, but still warmer over all (since temperature record keeping began in 1880). Look for the scary graphs.

— A little off topic, but still interesting, from Slate: How foreign car factories have transformed the American South:

"Time was, the Big Three were the U.S. auto industry. No longer. Over the past two decades, enticed by cheap labor and massive incentives, a second auto industry has emerged: nonunion, Southern-based, and foreign-owned. Large plants, with names of Asian and European carmakers emblazoned upon them, now dot the Southern landscape. By moving aggressively into Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, foreign manufacturers — call them the 'Little Eight' — have transformed the economic geography of the nation's auto industry and the political debate surrounding its future. ...

"Today's Southern solons have watched their local economies blossom thanks to a younger, more-vibrant auto industry unencumbered by the Big Three's legacy costs and union work rules—a sort of anti-Detroit that has the flexibility and ability to turn profits by making the types of cars that Americans actually want to buy."