Kickstart: A Corvette crossover? No thanks

Is a Corvette still cool if its name is attached to a crossover utility vehicle? I'm going to say "no."

A report from Bloomberg's David Welch says that General Motors Co. is considering an expansion of the Corvette name beyond sports cars.

The report, which you can read at sister paper Automotive News' website, says GM officials declined to comment. In addition to adding more vehicles styles under the brand, the company is also weighing how to add electric engines as an optional powertrain.

The Corvette, of course, brought widescale use of composites to the auto industry when the then-fiberglass car made its debut in the 1950s. (If you want to check out PN's 50th anniversary coverage of the Corvette, you can find it here and here.)

And sure, it might be interesting to see what a Corvette-inspired CUV would look like, but the name Corvette is for a very specific kind of car. It would be a shame to tone down its shine.

A lot of plastics companies have been investing in clean energy. Just in the past few months, Plastics News has brought you stories mentioning US Extruders running 31,000 square feet of manufacturing solely with solar power, Engel Machinery Inc. installing 1,300 solar panels in New York and SC Johnson's Method Products' 230-foot wind turbine used to supply about half the energy used at its Chicago packaging facility.

Molders and suppliers alike are finding value in green energy. For an idea of the growth in one plastics-heavy side of the green power business — wind turbines made with carbon fiber and other composites — consider this report from the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.

The Minnesota port, which is the westernmost commercial freight sea port on the Great Lakes, said that 525,000 freight tons of wind energy cargo passed through it in 2020, eclipsing the previous record from 2019 of 306,000 tons.

"These shipments included the longest blades (242 feet) and towers (100 feet) ever handled at the Great Lakes' heaviest lift port," the port authority said. "Collectively, the components will assemble 154 wind turbines."

When he's not debating single-use plastics with Tony Radoszewski during congressional hearings, Ted Danson is an actor. He's also on the board of the environmental group Oceana.

So it makes sense that in the first episode of his new TV series, Mr. Mayor, plastic straws were a minor plot point.

Danson and Oceana have also released a public service announcement about ocean plastics, timed for the launch of the new TV series.