Chrome And Steel Go Green

(CBS)  At this year's auto show they were all singing from the same song book. And its cover is green, reports CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers.

"It's diesel, it's hybrid-diesel, its hybrid gas, its hydrogen, it's hydrogen-diesel, it's hybrid-hydrogen," said Jean Jennings.

Part electric, part gas hybrids now come in all shapes and sizes. From the Saturn Vue to the Jeep Renegade to the Cadillac Escalade. You no longer have to sacrifice size to save the environment.

And at 200-plus mph, Indy drivers have proven you don't have to sacrifice power to run on ethanol.

But those drivers don't refuel at ordinary gas stations. Nearly six million U.S. cars can run on bio-fuel - but there are fewer than 1,400 places to buy it.

"Nearly everyone can agree that we need to find a better way to make ethanol," said Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors.

And before it fully comes to pass, corn-based ethanol could be passé. GM has partnered with Coskata -- a company that says it can make gas out of garbage … just like in the movie "Back to the Future."

But Coskata says within three years we should be able to use landfills to fill up. Best of all, this futuristic fuel will have an old fashioned price tag of about $1 a gallon.

The U.S. auto market is down 7 percent. Toyota is poised to becomes the world's number one car-maker.

So the American auto manufacturers desperately hope that going green will get them out of the red.

[falexonee]

I like this story about GM,but I''m concern about a email massage I send in about Computer waste being recycle in San Fancisco. I asked for contact infro. about the company amd Mr. Damiel Sieberg. And finally will I recieve this reply in personal inbox are What?????

[rncox1]

Many companies are now looking into alternative energy using different hydrocarbon sources. For instance, from WV Governor Manchin''s "Project Weirton" task force I know that negotiations are in progress between ArcelorMittal and a company "New York Energy Group" to bring into our area alternative fuel technology that generate power and alternative fuel from industrial and municple waste enriched with coal.

[bptdude]

Such a show is very cool, but mostly shows the American auto industry needs a direction to go. It does show the industry is capable of adapting.

Should some presidential candidate declare a clear mandate, such as the commitment to the huge infrastructure buildout required to convert the nation to hydrogen based energy economy, American automobile makers would probably prosper again.

Not only could deluxe concept cars be built, but the nation would be quite pleased to have the return of muscle cars, which can have all emission controls ripped out. Much simpler and less expensive automobiles could be built using internal combustion engines, instead of expensive fuel cells, based on wide and inexpensive hydrogen generated from green sources.

Well, it could happen, but watching the primaries, obviously won''t. But it is not the auto makers who wont the capacity.