Pavement To Charge Up My Volt

VOTE FOR SOLAR ROADWAYS

I’m telling you, this is so cool: Pave not with petroleum based asphalt but with sand-based photovoltaic panels – one giant electric grid. If you haven’t already, watch last week’s video. Then consider voting for the three game-changing ideas here. You have to register with GE’s Ecomagination Challenge but it takes just a minute; and right now, the ideas are so close to snagging GE’s seed money – with just a few hundred votes for each idea, your vote could actually make a difference. Not to say I’ve evaluated all the other ideas competing for GE’s dough (or have the competence to do so). But some of you are awfully good at this stuff. Take a look! You can vote for all the ideas you like.

VOTE FOR MOVING FORWARD

I know politics is tacky and simplistic. But the broad themes are clear and real: The Republicans really have tried to block everything the President has done. The President really is leading the country forward – on education, on energy, on health, on financial reform. Here he asks us to choose DRIVE over REVERSE this November.

Spread the word. Make the choice.

DETROIT

To those who lambasted the Obama Administration for throwing Detroit a lifeline (aka “bailout” aka “nationalization”), this may be worth a read – “Jobs are growing. Factory workers are anticipating their first healthy profit-sharing checks in years. Sales are rebounding . . .” Uncle Sam’s 61% stake in GM may turn out to have been a good investment for the taxpayer.

. . . Detroit has vowed to change before, slimming down when sales slumped or pouring resources into vehicle quality to catch up to foreign competitors. Those efforts stalled or failed. But many auto analysts say the current makeover has a more permanent feel, largely because of the presence of the outsiders at the top and the lessons learned from the near-death experience of last year’s bankruptcies at G.M. and Chrysler.

Ford’s chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, broke the mold four years ago when he came from Boeing and set out to streamline Ford’s bureaucracy and integrate its worldwide operations. At G.M., Edward E. Whitacre Jr., a former AT&T chief, has replaced dozens of top officials with outsiders and younger executives, and driven the company to make decisions faster. Those efforts are likely to be accelerated under Daniel F. Akerson, who was named on Thursday to succeed Mr. Whitacre as chief executive in September.

And at Chrysler, Mr. Marchionne, an Italian raised in Canada who is both a lawyer and an accountant, is systematically upgrading the carmaker’s aged product lineup and revamping its plants in Fiat’s image.

“Fundamentally this thing has been reshaped, resized and rethought,” Mr. Marchionne said of Detroit. . . .

☞ I want a Chevy Volt. I just need a place to plug it in, and a reason to drive it.