Some great recent news from the Important Media network.

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Some great recent news from the Important Media network.

The Inspired Economist

Walmart and Seventh Generation have joined forces to bring sustainable products to the masses!

Emily DeMasi discusses an excellent documentary about America’s dependence on foreign oil titled FUEL and asks “Why have I not seen this before???”

“Summer travel doesn’t always have to entail long airport security lines or expensive fill-ups at the pump. In fact, you can see much of the East Coast for as little as $1!” Read more: “Travel Green! An eco-friendly option.”

Ecopreneurist

Jeff Cain does a great job of discussing the biggest key to green building this week, location!

Jeff also has a good piece on how data and technology can make us greener.

Green Building Elements

There is good news and bad news for solar energy lately. On story that can go under both categories is this one: “Demand for Solar Panels Drains Supply“

One that can go straight into the good news category is: “Welcoming the World’s First Molten Salt Concentrating Solar Power Plant”

Eat.Drink…Better.

Some folks think genetically modified (GM) food is great; some think it’s horrible (e.g. me). But, really, shouldn’t people at least have the right to know if food is GM or not? You would think so, but making this so has been a long hard struggle. Heather Carr has a post about a bill on this matter moving through Congress right now: “The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act – H.R. 5577”

On the personal scale, don’t waste your delicious, non-GM, home-grown fruits and veggies this year. Racel Fox tells you how in “Canning your Goods: Tips for Home Food Preservation”

Making a case against bottled water, Becky Striepe has a wonder infographic on “Why You Should Stop Drinking Bottled Water” — check it out.

These are actually the three most recent of dozens of good posts on Eat.Drink…Better. this week. Rather than flood you with little excerpts, I’ll just recommend you head on over there to check them all out.

EcoLocalizer

Dave Dempsey discussed the recent Michigan oil spill and the questions it raises over on EcoLocalizer yesterday, while Rhonda Winter discussed the Louisiana oil spill a few days ago.

Rhonda also discusses “how incredibly pervasive the influence of the massive petroleum industry is within our government, academia and society” with the help of a great Rachel Maddow/MSNBC video.

And Dave Dempsey has a piece we should all care about: “New Study: Pollution Costs Children and Economy”

Fail Drill

For informative but depressing news via Fail Drill, a handful of must-reads are:

• NWF: Oil Assault on America
• View To A Kill: BP Delays “Static Kill” Operation, Talks about Scaling Back Cleanup
• Sandra Bullock and Other Helpful Celebs got Snowed by Big-Oil Front Group (UPDATED)
• Breaking: New Mini-Gusher Caused by Tug Boat
• Remember BP’s $20 Billion Compensation Fund? The Company has Failed To Fund It.
• Video: BP Oil Spill Poisoning People?

Feelgood Style

If you need to relax and clear your mind a bit after reading all those Fail Drill stories, here is a good one from Delia Montgomery on Feelgood Style: “Yoga and Aroma”

Crafting a Green World

And, you can find at least a few more good and uplifting reads over on Crafting a Green World. These are some of my favorites:

• A Review of Fix It, Make It, Grow It, Bake It by Billee Sharp
• EcoPaper Sketchbooks and Craft Paper
• Fab Fabrics: Eco-Friendly Denim

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Chevrolet, GM, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Plug In Conference

Following yesterday's big announcement, readers got a chance to ask Tony DiSalle, product marketing director for the Chevy Volt, some questions about the car's brand new $41,000 price tag ($33,500 after tax rebates). Since DiSalle was here at the Plug-In 2010 conference in San Jose, CA, we thought we'd pose a few of our own.

We started with what, exactly, Chevy dealers will be able to do with this price. After all, the $41,000 is just the manufacturer's suggested retail price. DiSalle said:

We have messaged to the dealers to do the right thing relative to the price, to not mark it up. At the end of the day, they are independent businesses. That's why you call it manufacturer's suggested retail price. A good dealer will do the right thing for the customer because they want to ensure long-term business and, quite frankly, a lot of these customers haven't been into Chevrolet showrooms. We're also noting that, especially the early adopters will be very vocal about what price the dealer was asking them to pay and that word will spread instantly. Dealers need to know word will get out if they try to gross it up.

General Motors know this about Volt enthusiasts because it has 70,000 of them registered on a list. GM polled them in late spring and discovered 75 percent don't have a single GM product in their household. More recently, GM asked other questions and discovered that around 70 percent intend to buy a Volt and that they're not just along for the ride and to get information.

Back in March 2009, GM's executive director of global engineering, Bob Kruse, said that the Volt's price would be based, in part, on the price of gas in November 2010. DiSalle would not reveal when the Volt's price was actually decided but did say they considered the price of oil played a role. "We comprehended every value we could think of. Was that a determining factor? No, it wasn't," he said.

(this post continues after the jump)

Continue reading Plug-in 2010: GM talks details about the Volt's $41,000 price tag

Plug-in 2010: GM talks details about the Volt's $41,000 price tag originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Something you should be aware of if you’re not yet is that Planetsave is a part of the Important Media network. Other than Planetsave, there are currently 10 other sites in the network.

Though I don’t often cover other stories on the network (or even mention them) here on Planetsave, since they generally deal with specialized topics outside of Planetsave’s focus (and because I generally feel a little hesistant about self-promotion), there are so many d*** good stories about environmental matters or green living on those other sites, I’ve decided that it would be a good idea to do a weekly round-up of great stories from around the Important Media network. So, without rambling any further, here is our first Important Media Weekly Round-Up.

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Since the widespread adoption of so-called biotech, or genetically modified/engineered (GM/GE), crops by many large U.S. farms a decade and a half ago, U.S. farmers and scientists have been conducting one, large-scale, agricultural experiment.

This experiment–mostly involving corn, soy and cotton–has raised several concerns (e.g., the spread of GM genes to other plant populations) both here and abroad. The two main concerns with biotech crops are the environmental impact(s), and, the economic costs/benefits. In Europe, food safety is also a major concern.

But according to a new report from the National Research Council (NRC), the research arm of the National Academies, the U.S. agricultural industry’s shift to genetically modified crops has proven to be mostly beneficial–both economically and environmentally. (more…)

1970 Saab. Image credit:Wikimedia. GM bought Saab about 20 years back and gradually made them increasingly Chevy-like. Platform synergy blah blah. Unsurprisingly, no other companies want to buy it from GM. So now, they are are going to close it. Here's to the old days, when Saab engineers worked on developing a Read the full story on TreeHugger