For Friday, Jan. 29, 2016

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1- The greenest and the meanest cars have been named for 2016.

A nonprofit called the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy released the list of environmental ratings for vehicles. For the first time, all of the vehicles on the greenest list are plug-in and hybrid vehicles.

At the top is the Mercedes-Benz Smart for Two Electric Drive.

The Chevrolet Spark came in at No. 2.

The Ford Focus Electric came in at No. 10, with the Chevrolet Volt at No. 11.

The meanest list of popular vehicles least-friendly to the environment includes … the Mercedes-Benz G65 AMG in the top spot, the Chevrolet/GMC G2500 Express/Savana at No. 2 and the Ford Transit at No. 7.

 

2 – The first Solarize campaign in Michigan is targeting the Saginaw Bay region.

The Institute for Energy Innovation is launching the Solarize Michigan initiative with a goal of significantly increasing small solar energy deployment in Saginaw, Bay City, Midland, and surrounding communities.

Those involved include local economic development organizations – Saginaw Future, Bay Future and Midland Tomorrow. The initiative is based on a Solarize model first developed in Portland, Oregon.

The initiative aims to increase interest in residential and commercial solar energy systems and reduce the cost to homeowners and businesses.

The program is intended to reduce the average cost of residential and small commercial solar installations through bulk purchasing.

As part of a campaign, a request has been issued for proposals from solar installation companies.

Selected installers will be named on Feb. 18.

– Mr. Great Lakes is heard at 9 a.m. Fridays in Bay City, Michigan, on Delta College Q-90.1 FM NPR.

Follow @jeffkart on Twitter #MrGreatLakes