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LOS ANGELES (CNNMoney.com ) — In a construction van winding through Los Angeles’ crowded streets one hot spring morning, 25-year old Tim Morris laid bare his contribution to changing America’s dirty, fossil fuel-based economy.

“I’d like to see America and the world become sustainable,” said Morris, a transplant from Flint, Mich., who’s been in L.A. just a little over four months. “Solar is the biggest difference I can make with what’s on the

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NEW YORK – BP brands itself a friend of the environment, an energy company that goes “beyond petroleum.”

That image, worth billions of dollars, is being sullied by the company’s inability to contain a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

As the expanding oil slick threatens marshlands and wildlife along the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, BP faces perhaps the biggest public relations challenge an oil company has experienced in the U.S. since the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska in 1989.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — In the next few years, we’ll be seeing more Italian cars on American roads as Fiat and Alfa Romeo return to the states after a nearly two decade absence.

Fiat and Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne says we’ll also be seeing more Italian vehicles sold under the familiar American brands of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep.

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SHANGHAI – It’s not quite as foldable as the space vehicle that cartoon figure George Jetson pops into his briefcase as he bops into the office.

But the EN-V concept car, GM’s “automobile solution” for the future, just might fit into an apartment foyer.

General Motors and its Chinese partner SAIC will showcase the “Electric Networked-Vehicle” launched Wednesday in their joint pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, which opens May 1 and runs for six months.

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Porsche revealed images late Wednesday of its first hybrid sports car, a track car it plans to unveil at the Geneva Motor show next month.

While you won’t be able to park this car in your driveway — it’s a race car intended for LeMans endurance racing — it is based on the same production 911 you can buy today. A future 911 hybrid for public consumption is “open for discussion,” a Porsche spokesman said.

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LOS ANGELES – As American consumers abandon gas-guzzling SUVs for greener alternatives, they also face a new kind of sticker shock — confusing claims about the energy efficiency of electric cars heading for showrooms.

Federal fuel economy standards and household budgets have been built around relatively simple measurements of how many miles vehicles can travel per gallon of gasoline, a number that features on a sticker displayed in the windows of new cars in U.S. showrooms.

So what should those stickers show for new battery-powered cars that will draw most or all of their power from the country’s electricity grid?

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WASHINGTON – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the nation’s top car salesman in recent weeks, has cited the Obama administration’s best-seller list of mostly smaller, fuel-saving cars like the Ford Focus to describe the success of the Cash for Clunkers rebate program.

But what LaHood and other administration officials usually don’t mention is that some trucks and sport-utility vehicles that get less than 20 miles per gallon, like the Ford F-150 truck and one version of the Cadillac SRX Crossover, also are being purchased with the new government subsidies. Both are bulky vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds when loaded that boast at least 248 horsepower.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — This much seems certain about the Cash for Clunkers program: Consumers are happy to take government rebates to buy new cars.

The fate of the $1 billion trade-in program was up in the air late Thursday over concerns that it may have already burned through its funds less than a week after it was launched.

Congressional sources said earlier in the day that the program would be suspended.

A White House official and a source at the Department of Transportation later said the program would not be suspended. The DOT official said the administration would try to work with Congress to find more funds to keep it going.

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DEARBORN, Mich. – Cultivating the next generation of fuel-efficient vehicles, the Obama administration said Tuesday it would lend $5.9 billion to Ford Motor Co. and about $2.1 billion to Nissan Motor Co. and Tesla Motors Inc. in a government-industry partnership to build green cars.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the three automakers would be the first beneficiaries of a $25 billion fund to develop fuel-efficient vehicles. The loans to Ford will help the company upgrade factories in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio to produce 13 fuel-efficient vehicles.