I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Against a backdrop of new fuel economy standards and a stagnant economy in which people are feeling the pinch of high gas prices, the North American International Auto Show opens to the public in Detroit this weekend with a heavy emphasis on “green” technology.
One example of that new technology is Ford’s EcoBoost engine system — which allows a gasoline engine to work like a diesel engine. It is an “unsexy, but powerful” development, said Jim Kliesch, senior analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists and member of the group’s clean vehicles program.
The EcoBoost combines direct injection and turbocharger technology to increase efficiency and allow for downsized engine volume and fewer cylinders — smaller engines use less gas.
Ford says EcoBoost is the “cornerstone” of its environmental technology in the near term.
The company said that it will “introduce EcoBoost on the new Lincoln MKS flagship in 2009, followed by the Ford Flex and other vehicles. By 2013, Ford will have more than half a million EcoBoost-powered vehicles on the road annually in North America.”
According to Ford, “customers in North America can expect to recoup their initial investment in a 4-cylinder EcoBoost engine through fuel savings in about 2 and a half years.”
Continued -Because the amount of greenhouse gasses released by cars closely correlates with the amount of fuel burned, improvements in efficiency that are brought to market quickly could put a meaningful dent in the damage that cars do to the environment, Kliesch said.
Ford said that emissions from light-duty cars and trucks account for 20 percent of all man-made CO2 emissions and that it is taking climate change seriously.
Despite the company’s roll-out of the EcoBoost, Ford was targeted with protests by college students with the Freedom From Oil Campaign at the Cobo Convention Center last week.
“The green theme at this year’s North American International Auto Show is window dressing,” Jodie Van Horn of Rainforest Action Network said in a statement. “The environmental rhetoric coming out of the last two years of ‘eco’ auto shows does not reflect true vehicle production. The industry’s goal has been to fool consumers into believing that automakers are producing eco-conscious cars. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
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