Find the local in global climate summit
For the next week or so, some 15,000 delegates from around the planet will continue meeting at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen to discuss quandaries and proposed solutions related to the environmental impact of humans and particularly greenhouse gases.
If you haven’t done an alternative energy story in a while, this might be a serendipitous news peg. The conference comes hot on the heels of last week’s Los Angeles auto show, during which General Motors Corp. pledged to start churning out a production version of its electric Chevy Volt in a revamped Detroit plant, and selling the plug-in car by November 2010.
(The automaker also debuted a special Chevy Volt song … one likely to send even the most ardent conservationist running for the nearest SUV. One hopes the marketing program shapes up by next fall.)
The Volt will be powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries manufactured in South Korea by LG Chem; current hybrids also use Asian-made batteries.
But lawmakers and business leaders stateside are trying to rev up the domestic battery biz and have set aside billions of dollars in grants and other funding. It’s unclear how those funds are accounted for just yet, because they’re being disbursed through so many different state and federal agencies. And tracing the money is further complicated by other business grants available through the more recent American Recovery and Reinvestment of 2009.
Your best bet is to find local companies of related interest and get them to describe the local impact of any federal funding.
Here’s a link to an excellent, comprehensive piece in the trade journal Chemical and Engineering news, which summarizes the state of the domestic industry and names quite a few players that should may give you story leads if they coincide with your territory.
If that doesn’t prove fruitful for your turf, check out this link to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center, which offers some background and resources.
Another source: The Society of Automotive Engineers Web site; their centerpiece articles may provide leads and if not, their supplier marketplace page is bulging with links to suppliers large and small under myriad component categories. No doubt with a little sleuthing you can find a local player in the rechargeable battery field.
If not, and you still want to do a CO2 story to coincide with the climate change program, turn to your local public utilities.
A sample of natural gas or power-and-light Web sites nationwide turned up a really interesting array of programs that aim to save money for rate-payers but also to reduce the carbon footprint of the companies and patrons alike. With winter heating season about to set in, you could derive a really eye-opening consumer or environmental piece about the costs and benefits of these household-level initiatives.
