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AUTOMAKER BAILOUT MEETS GOP RESISTANCE

AUTOMAKER BAILOUT MEETS REPUBLICAN RESISTANCE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key Republican Senator said on Sunday it was "pretty clear" a $25 billion bailout proposal for U.S. automakers will fail in the U.S. Senate, while Democrats argued saving the industry was critical to the U.S. economy.

The Senate is slated on Monday to begin debating emergency legislation to General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co, and Chrysler LLC in a special post-election session to deal with the economic crisis.

The leading Democratic plan would authorize up to $25 billion in loans from the Treasury Department's $700 billion corporate rescue program to help Detroit survive its financial crisis. In return, the government would take equity stakes in the companies and impose limits on executive compensation.

New Energy Law is Good News for Michigan Electricians

New Energy Law is Very Good News for Michigan Electricians

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm on Monday signed into law legislation that calls for 10 percent of electricity in the state to be generated from renewable sources by 2015. Just over half the 50 U.S. states have set requirements for renewable power generation.

Also signed into law is a Michigan provision requiring energy efficiency to cut power demand by 5.5 percent by 2015. A third provision signed by Granholm limits switching by industrial customers from Michigan utilities. This amendment to existing law is seen as helping Consumers Energy build a new coal power plant and for Detroit Edison to build a new nuclear plant by assuring them of an adequate customer base to support the major capital projects.

Marathon Oil Refinery Project Gets Green Light

Marathon Heavy Oil Refinery Upgrade Job Begins

Michigan's only gasoline refinery, Marathon Oil in southwest Detroit, received final permission Friday to begin a $1.9-billion expansion of its plant, which will create 800 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs and, possibly, give some gas price relief in 2011 to drivers in southeast Michigan.

Michigan Electricity Deregulation

Michigan Electricity Deregulation

Electric Deregulation

Electric Deregulation: What it's all about
You may hear it referred to by several different names: customer choice, deregulation, electric choice, or electric utility restructuring. Whatever it's called, it's a new way of deciding how customers get their energy supply. Electricity is supplied through a system of three separate activities. Traditionally, these services have all been provided by your local utility. They include:

Generation, where the electricity is produced at a power plant;
Transmission, which moves power at high voltages from the power plant to the local distribution system; and
Distribution, where the electricity is delivered to homes and businesses.

In several states across the country, state legislatures have passed laws allowing customers to buy electricity from suppliers other than their local utility. The power continues to be delivered to the customer's home or business through the local utility's distribution system.

The theory behind all this is that competition will drive down the price of generation and the customer will end up with a lower bill. Does customer choice work?
Electric customer choice has experienced mixed success in states where it's been tried. In California it turned out to be a disaster, partly because a shortage of supply drove the price up. Some large customers have been able to benefit from customer choice but generally, it has not led to lower electric bills for residential or small commercial customers. In states where it's been tried, most customers who switched suppliers eventually returned to their local utility.

It may be too early to tell whether customer choice will work in the electric utility industry. The market is new and may simply need time to develop. On the other hand, the concept may simply be flawed. Time will tell.

Customer Choice in Michigan
In June 2000 Governor Engler signed P.A. 141, also known as the Michigan Customer Choice and Electricity Reliability Act. All customers of investor-owned utilities and large rural electric cooperative customers became eligible to choose their own electric suppliers as of January 1, 2002. Small cooperative customers will have choice by January 1, 2005.

The bill gives the governing boards of the state's 41 municipally-owned electric utilities the choice of opting in or out of customer choice for their customers. Customer Choice and the BWL
Under the new law, the governing boards of Michigan's municipally owned utilities can decide whether choice will be extended to customers of their utilities.

GM ALMOST READY WITH CHEVY VOLT

GM FINALIZES DESIGN AND READIES CHEVY VOLT FOR 2010 PRODUCTION

GM announced today it has finalized the design of the Chevy Volt, the automakers new hybrid car. While they are still working the bugs out of the lithium ion battery system, they hope the Volt will be ready to build in 2010.

AMERICAN AXLE STRIKE HITS ONE MONTH

AMERICAN AXLE STRIKE HITS ONE MONTH

There is still no end in sight for the American Axle strike.

STOCKS RALLY HIGHER ON FEDS LATEST BAILOUT PLAN

STOCKS RALLY HIGHER ON FEDS LATEST BAILOUT PLAN

Wall Street rallied today on news that the Federal Reserve is planning on pumping $200 Billion into the liquidity starved credit markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial average was up over 400 points today, it's biggest one day rally since 2002.

Clearly the markets liked what the Fed had to say. While this plan does do more to help the credit crisis by providing much needed liquidity for new loans, one has to wonder if this bailout of bad investments isn't just prolonging the inevitable.

AMERICAN AXLE WORKERS GO ON STRIKE

AMERICAN AXLE WORKERS GO ON STRIKE

American Axle Workers went on strike at midnight Monday Feb. 25. after failing to reach a contract.

FED RATE IS FALLING BUT SOME BANKS ARE RAISING INTEREST RATES

SOME BANKS RAISING CREDIT CARD RATES AS FED INTEREST RATES FALL

Banks are trying to cover their bad loan losses by raising credit card rates for consumers who can least afford it.

GM PLANNING NEW DIESEL ENGINE

GM PLANS ON SPENDING $69 MILLION TO UPGRADE DAYTON PLANT