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Issue 14
, 2009
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Innovative Ideas to Bring In Greener Cleaner Economy

Source: Various Net sources, Date: , 2009

Innovative ideas abound the Green Green world and economy, it seems.

To start with Jet fuels derived from algae, camelina and jatropha -- plants that pack an energy punch, are not eaten as food and do not displace food crops -- could be approved and replacing petroleum fuels in commercial flights as early as next year, as per recent reports .

And this not all! You have to look at the next biot of news from the USA to see how much governments are trying to maintain a green surrounding.

Old cars that foul the air with dirty exhaust are a valuable commodity in Texas. According to recent reports if you own a clunker at least 10 years old and live near a major city like Houston, the state will give you a voucher worth more than the car’s value. Drive the car to a dealer, sign a few forms, hand over the voucher—worth up to $3,500—and drive off in a newer vehicle, no soot trailing
you down the road, the report says.

For low- and middle-income consumers, this is a welcome government policy.Now he has an  opportunity to trade up to a newer and most importantly cleaner car with better mileage .Several other US states are trying to follow an environment-friendly scrappage programme with modifications.These plans , needless to say, have the Presidential nod.

Although the car market should move naturally toward more efficient cars as older ones are retired, the turnover typically happens at a turtle’s pace.  Retiring old polluters can take a long time. Some 240 million cars run on American roads. Typically only half of them will be retired in 17 years. If the government offers cash vouchers worth more than the trade-in value of old cars, it is assumed that  people will be induced to turn those cars in sooner than they would have otherwise to buy something better.

However,cash for clunkers is not a popular notion in all quarters. An ambitious scrappage program could add billions of dollars annually to the nation’s budget deficit. Donald H. Stedman, a chemistry professor at the University of Denver, points to what he calls the “perverse incentive” that could make such programs less effective than desired. In his view, vehicles being driven the fewest miles will tend to be traded in disproportionately. , although the public would get little benefit in reduced pollution and oil consumption.



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