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10:30:00 AM EDT
Hearing Bleed Like Me -- Garbage
GE Going Green?
This is fascinating to me: General Electric, a little corporate concern which you may have heard of, is planning to significantly boost its R&D budgets in energy technologies, specifically those that reduce emissions and energy use:
"Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to address challenges such as the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions and abundant sources of clean water,” GE Chairman Jeff Immelt said in a statement announcing the initiative. "And we plan to make money doing it. Increasingly for business, ‘green’ is green."
Reduced emissions, he noted at the unveiling at George Washington University, often translates into lower fuel costs and that benefits the customer.
Already a major player in renewable energy, GE said it would focus even more on solar and wind power as well as other environmental technologies it is involved with, such as diesel-electric locomotives, lower emission aircraft engines, more efficient lighting, and water purification.
While noting that publicity value of GE doing this thing, I think it's significant because it seems to indicate we may have reached a "tipping point" with alternate energy sources and technologies, in which using them makes economic sense, not just a philosophical statement. IF GE -- not exactly the most adventurous of companies -- is under the impression it can actually make good money on this stuff in the reasonably short-term future, that's a pretty big signal that things could change, fast.
Are we on the cusp of a new energy age? And if so do you think it's just in time, or a little late?
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
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Yep, we're on the cusp, and better late than never, but we're also dealing with people who think the next few decades are going to be like the last few and are coming up with stuff like this...
http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/13/pf/autos/monster_truck/ -
via your mom's journal...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday dear John...
Happy Birthday to you!!! xox
http://journals.aol.com/valphish/ValsThoughts -
Car dealers are able to get $5000 OVER the sticker price of hybrids (because the demand is so high) -- and, really, you'd have to drive one of those for a LONG TIME to make up $5000 in gas savings. But it demonstrates how desperate people are for greener technology -- and how willing they are to pay for it.
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5/13/05 1:15 AM
Happy Birthday late... I think that China has bought our steel and she is in the process of trying to sell millions more cars to her people than we own over the next ten years.
I think that America is reaching out to improve our air, our nisdutries and lessen our waste. At the same time we have moved our industrial machine to China and Malasia.
Interestingly this is scaring Mexico who thinks all cheap jobs will go also.