There’s been another Phoenix Motorcars citing and while it’s not breaking news, I was pleased to see that the vigilant Autoblog Green checked in with the company website and discovered that they plan to have their All-Electric sport utility vehicle available for prime time next year. You can even pre-order and the form asks how you heard about the vehicle. I vote for number 5-Ed Begley, Jr. The other news out of California is that the Golden state is primed to charge the 380 biggest polluters in the state for their carbon emissions. The New York Times makes the distinction that the anticipated $63 million in revenue will pay for the monitoring and regulation of their strict global warming bill but does not replace the cap-and-trade program slated for 2012.

Climate change is cropping up all over and our friends in the UK have placed electric vehicles at the heart of their new transportation policy. The Guardian reports on the findings that policy matters and the government needs to back solid infrastructure and the creation of electric car cities. Like the U.S., the UK is bedeviled by ¼ of their emissions coming from transportation. And, the Detroit News crows that ready, set, go, Michigan is poised to win the clean fuel race. I’m all for good news out of Michigan and they arguably need the $1.3 of the $2.4 billion and subsequent 6800 jobs resulting from federal funding for battery and electric vehicle research. Their goals are electric, biofuels and someday-hydrogen.

I’m never quite sure what to do when surrounded by engineers and geologists, mostly because I don’t get their jokes, but I’m over it as some of the smartest, passionate people I’ve heard are gathered in Denver this week for the ASPO-USA conference. They are the foot soldiers for peak oil, a politically agnostic reality that isn’t going away. First, kudos to Robert Hirsch for earning the 2009 Hubbert Award. One of the speakers I anticipated most was Richard Heinberg and he didn’t disappoint. The quiet, humble Heinberg was asked once by the session moderator if his professional training is in economics or geology and his response was “violin.” The peak oil movement needs someone who can pull strings and Heinberg does it with his brain and heart. His fifteen minute address is on the Post Carbon Institute website and he succinctly covers the past, present and future. It’s hard to find a lot of happy immersed in peak oil realities, but Heinberg nailed it, as he concluded, “It is a tough message. But it’s the truth, and somebody has to utter it. I guess it’s our job, because we are the ones who have shown up.”