Green Options

The financial woes at General Motors could finally be catching up with its fuel cell vehicle development program.

In a Web-based interview with the media Tuesday, CEO Fritz Henderson said the company may take a close look at what it spends on fuel cell development. When asked by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s Matt Daneman about fuel cells, Henderson said “while we need to be more efficient in this area, we are confident we can maintain the capabilities necessary to win in the market going forward.” Th giant automaker declared bankruptcy this month and is selling off subsidiaries.

At most college dining halls, they’ll fry just about anything.

Wings, mozzarella sticks, fries and onion rings. Old shoe leather (wait, maybe that’s just a memory of how things tasted at my college dining hall.) All that frying leaves a lot of leftover grease and oil.

At the University of Rochester, a group of students used that oil as the foundation for a business plan that has produced both a biodiesel powered shuttle bus and a new building for biofuel experimentation. The project will hit a milestone on Earth Day, when university President Joel Seligman will help send the shuttle bus off on its first trips around campus, including a tour of the new building.

New York’s Ontario County is exploring the possibility of turning garbage into gas at the county’s landfill.

The county is debating whether to let Casella Waste Systems, which runs the landfill in the town of Seneca, build a $5 million pilot plant there. If the pilot proves successful, a $100 million plant could eventually be built on the site, reports the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. The idea will be debated at a public hearing tonight.

Currently the landfill takes in about 2,200 tons of trash a day from 33 counties, other states and Canada.

The weird things you discover while following random links online: apparently there’s a small but growing trend of people walking on treadmills — dubbed Walkstations — while they work.

The New York Times wrote last week about how companies like Humana, Mutual of Omaha, GlaxoSmithKline and Best Buy have been buying these Walkstations — a total of 335 since last November — to help their employees stay fit while they work. Credit for the concept goes to James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic who’s big on the benefits of exercise.