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Good To Know: Clean Travel In Minnesota's Future

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May 18, 2009 10:41 pm US/Central

Good To Know: Clean Travel In Minnesota's Future

Reporting
Don Shelby
(WCCO) The President will announce Tuesday new fuel efficiency and lower emission standards for cars and trucks. The change will come four years quicker than Congress called for. Don Shelby says plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles could soon be seen in numbers right here in the Twin Cities.

Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hennepin and Ramsey Counties, the Ford Motor Company, Xcel Energy and a bunch of non-profit groups hope to put a fleet of 66 new electric or hybrid cars on our roadways before the end of 2010.

The Department of Energy has ponied up about $400 million in federal stimulus money to be split among more than 30 projects around the country. Most of the vehicles will be used by public agencies.

Xcel Energy will be setting up the infrastructure. That means the charging stations. Some of them will be solar and wind-driven. President Obama wants at least 1,000,000 battery-powered vehicles on the highways of America by 2015.

The President will make his announcement Tuesday flanked by representatives of the U.S. auto manufacturers. Now, if we can just convince Detroit to turn the St. Paul Ford plant into a plug-in hybrid operation, that would be sweet.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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