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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is expected this month to release a far-reaching proposal to combat global warming that calls for increasing the price of gasoline to fund research into alternative fuels and requiring industries for the first time to report the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions they produce. Nine months ago Schwarzenegger garnered international headlines by calling for California to mount an aggressive effort to address global warming. Now he faces the difficult part: shepherding new policies into place that could affect every car owner, farmer and big industry in the state. The proposal, drafted by...

(FORTUNE Magazine) - You probably don't know it, but the answer to America's gasoline addiction could be under the hood of your car. More than five million Tauruses, Explorers, Stratuses, Suburbans, and other vehicles are already equipped with engines that can run on an energy source that costs less than gasoline, produces almost none of the emissions that cause global warming, and comes from the Midwest, not the Middle East. These lucky drivers need never pay for gasoline again--if only they could find this elusive fuel, called ethanol. Chemically, ethanol is identical to the grain alcohol you may have spiked...

The world economy is currently running on a resource that is controlled by our enemies. This threatens to leave us prostrate. It must change—and the good news is that it can change, quickly. Using portions of the hundreds of billions of petrodollars they are annually draining from our economy, Middle Easterners have established training centers for terrorists, paid bounties to the families of suicide bombers, and funded the purchase of weapons and explosives. Oil revenues underwrite new media outlets that propagandize hatefully against the United States and the West. They pay for more than 10,000 radical madrassahs set up around...

In November Ford said it will work with Brookings, S.D.-based ethanol producer VeraSun Energy Corp. to convert more existing fuel pumps to E85. GM last week said it would lead a project in California to get the state Department of Transportation to use between 50 and 100 of its flex-fuel Impalas. Chevron Corp. plans to add ethanol pumps at some gas stations near the agency's offices.

Proposals for the longer term could be more controversial. One is that owners of hybrids and other alternative fuel vehicles pay a vehicle fee, the argument being that drivers should bear their fair share to fill the potholes and fix the bridges, regardless of how much or what kind of fuel they use. In the same vein, the report said federal and state governments should begin moving from the fuel tax to a mileage-based system. The current tax, in place since 1956, could have diminishing returns as cars become more fuel efficient and if Americans, turned off by rising gas...

I am disgusted as I read the news. We buy oil from petty tyrants. South American thugs bad-talk us and threaten to shut off the tap. Middle-East royalty, two generations from living in mud huts fund jihadists who want to cut off our heads. We compete with communist slave-workers for oil driving up the prices. We may or may not be running out of the stuff creating the real possibility that we are going have to find a replacement anyway. Honestly, our oil economy is going to hurt us at some point. I don’t know if it will be now...

Ever wish America didn’t depend on the Middle East for oil imports? Ever wish there was an alternative to gasoline? There is. It’s called E85. E85 is a clean, practical, alternative fuel made from the ultimate renewable resource...American grains. E85 is 85% ethanol, distilled from corn, and only 15% gasoline. By fueling with E85, motorists can help reverse the trend toward greater Middle Eastern oil imports. We have got an abundant supply of clean-burning, high performing, renewable fuel right here in the U.S. E85 is a high-octane fuel, produced by the fermentation of plant sugars. Today, U.S. ethanol producers currently...

Drivers are fighting rising gasoline prices by buying "flex" or "flexible fuel" cars that slurp more alcohol. Alcohol made from sugar cane is becoming the fuel of choice in Brazil, and other countries - so much so that global sugar prices hit a seven-year high this week.

...Higher oil prices hit the economy much like a tax increase.... It's a testament to the effectiveness of the 2003 Bush tax cuts that the economy continues to grow briskly despite this anchor of high fuel costs. So what can be done about it? In the long run, the government can lift restrictions on domestic production of oil and natural gas in Alaska and offshore. The Federal Reserve can also play its part by tightening what has been the most accommodative monetary policy since the 1970s.... And speaking of the 1970s, the most important thing Congress can do is not...

Warning: The Hydrogen Economy May Be More Distant Than It Appears Michael Behar In presidential campaign of 2004, Bush and Kerry managed to find one piece of common ground: Both spoke glowingly of a future powered by fuel cells. Hydrogen would free us from our dependence on fossil fuels and would dramatically curb emissions of air pollutants, including carbon dioxide, the gas chiefly blamed for global warming. The entire worldwide energy market would evolve into a “hydrogen economy” based on clean, abundant power. Auto manufacturers and environmentalists alike happily rode the bandwagon, pointing to hydrogen as the next big thing...

Indian Railways has begun planting thousands of saplings of a tree that will meet 15 percent of its energy needs in the next few years, besides reducing pollution. After years of research on its viability, officials are planting saplings of 'Jatropha' and 'Karanjia' trees, the seeds of which yield green fuel strong enough to run diesel locomotives. Trial runs have been carried out successfully and laboratory tests have cleared the viability of this green fuel for commercial use. For starters, 200,000 trees are being planted on the railway land in the Kharagpur division of West Bengal. The plant could easily...

Note: my brother has published an industry newsletter, GREEN CAR JOURNAL, for over a dozen years. I've written for it over the years. Last year he launched the slick cover version in a magazine. From his website, here is a portion of a recent interview with Lee Iacocca. ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH IACOCCA RC: Where does politics fit into all this? Iacocca: “I’ve written two books and I’ve taken the Japanese apart because of their trade practices, but what I’ve really taken apart is that this country does not have an energy policy. I’ve gone through nine Presidents of the United...

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, visited Westchester County today to speak on behalf of one of his new clients, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, as it prepares for an antiterrorism drill at its Indian Point nuclear power complex. The visit was part of an elaborate presentation by Entergy that blended the thrills of a summer action picture — an M-16 semiautomatic rifle firing blanks at an Indian Point security officer — and Mr. Giuliani's star power. It seemed designed to take back some of the attention that has lately focused on Entergy's critics, who have attacked the nuclear...