With gasoline prices rollercoasting downward, Detroit car makers desperate for cash and standing accused of managerial dinosaurosity, T. Boone Pickens suddenly unable to raise the money he needs to plant wind turbines by the thousands so trucks can run on natural gas, and semi-conspiracy theories proliferating, a little story surfaced today that sort of straddles the whole mess. The Spokesman Review’s Dan Hansen tells the long, winding story of a community college’s struggle to get, for its vocational auto repair class, a factory-made Honda Civic that runs on natural gas. It has been so difficult that one author smells price-fixing shenanigans by big biz. The Tracker just thinks it illustrates the industrial inertia that will make any green, clean, lean, and mean transportation transformation a tough job. Market forces just aren’t going to be enough, Mr. Gramm (for why a Phil Gramm reference, see this in today’s NYTimes).

-CP

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Environment & Energy Stories, Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.