Goodbye Gas-Guzzler

Earlier this month General Motors announced that it will be closing four of its truck manufacturing plants in North America. The largest car manufacturer in the U.S. made even more noise when they announced possible plans to sell its Hummer brand.

Apparently only getting 13 mpg/city is finally beginning to drive both off-road enthusiasts and suburban commuters away.

GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner feels poor fuel efficiency may be the straw that breaks the Hummer's back.

"High gasoline prices are changing consumer behavior rapidly," Wagoner said. "We at GM don't think this is a spike or temporary shift. We believe that it is by and large permanent."

GM is making plans to reallocate funding toward sub-compact vehicle production as well as the manufacturing of the "Volt", an all-electric vehicle set to release in 2010.

This could mean a larger shift for all auto manufacturers to push efforts even harder to produce more Eco-friendly vehicles. Going Green seems to be a lot easier for companies when they're seeing red.

The possible end to a gas guzzling era comes with a high cost: lay-offs. Hopefully, the shift in production will mean that the 10,000 GM employees who lost their jobs in the truck plant closings will soon find work.

(quotes attributed to Reuters)