The Ford Motor Company, who has been criticized in the past by environmentalists for backing down from their alternative energy, vehicle development, announced that they would be selling plug-in hybrids in the next five to ten years.

This is the first time that Ford has announced a timeline for producing plug-in hybrids. The plug-in hybrid is seen as the best type of alternative energy vehicle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and gas consumption.

Here's a fairly new and very needed blog called the Hot House started up by Stuart Leavenworth at the Sacramento Bee.

Stuart will be covering the ins and outs of California's efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. I hope that Leavenworth will be keeping an especially close eye on the lawsuit by the auto industry against the state of California that has effectively delayed action on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions for the better part of 5 years now.

For those readers not familiar with the case. Here's a basic rundown.

Check out Gizmodo's review of the Honda Civic Hybrid. This is a no-brainer new car purchase, at 50 mpg with 140 horsepower, coming in at around $22,000 US ($25,000 CAN). Not to mention the huge savings in gas and tax exemption programs. No wonder Toyota and Honda are doing so well, while the Detroit automakers are still flailing their arms over Hummers and F150's.

For those out there who think going green means going backwards, please tell me where the hair shirt (or in this case seat-covers) is in the Honda hybrid?

Today's reported auto-industry numbers, show just how backwards things have become in the fight to reduce oil consumption and reduce C02 emissions.

Yesterday, we reported here on the hypocrisy of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturer's fighting a Supreme Court ruling that could enact tough new CO2 emissions standards on cars and trucks, while stating at the same time on their website that, "Members of the Alliance believe that it is prudent to reduce emissions, including carbon dioxide…"

Once in a while a great public information campaign comes along, and this one by the Rain Forest Action Network fits the bill.

At the Detroit Auto Show, they had a full-size Kermit the Frog complaining about it's involvement in Ford Motor Company advertisements. As DeSmog readers well know , Ford Motor Company promotes a very green image, while continuing to fund organizations, like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, that sow doubt about the realities of global warming.

Canada's latest and greatest climate change denial group, the Natural Resource Stewardship Project, has come up with a laughable reason for hiding it's funding sources. According to a recent CanWest News Service article, the NRSP's executive director, Tom Harris, states that "a confidentiality agreement doesn't allow him to say whether energy companies are funding his group."

Unfortunately for Harris and his secretive little club, such a a statement does not diffuse speculation, it only begs the question more. What organization could be funding Harris's NRSP that necessitates such secrecy? Even the Competitive Enterprise Intstitute, an industry front group with a great deal more profile than the NRSP, readliy admits they lobby-for-dollars on behalf of of industry leaders like Ford Motor Company and ExxonMobil.