Transmission

General Motors said Thursday that more than 7,500 workers, including about 30 in the Baltimore area, have signed up to take buyouts or early retirement as the financially troubled automaker restructures to avoid bankruptcy. The Powertrain Baltimore Transmission Plant in White Marsh will lose about 26 hourly workers. About 238 hourly employees and 40 salaried workers currently work at the plant. And four employees who worked at an assembly plant in Southeast Baltimore that closed in 2005 will take buyouts or retirements.

American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy said yesterday that they have filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a rate formula to recover the cost of building a $1.8 billion, 290-mile-long, extra-high-voltage transmission line from West Virginia to Frederick. If the formula is approved, the PJM Interconnection, which operates the regional power grid, would use it to charge utilities in 13 states for the use of energy from that system. Maryland is part of that grid.

WHITE MARSH -- Both General Motors Corp. and its workers saw the minting of the Allison Transmission plant's first hybrid transmission yesterday as much more than just a new product. It is a lifeline for both. The nation's largest automaker is producing the industry's first hybrid transmission for light trucks here in a bid to regain market share from foreign competitors such as Toyota Motor Corp. If it is a success, GM plans to expand the product line, which could mean new jobs at the plant.

WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Bill Richardson will propose in a speech tomorrow six steps to reduce electricity disruptions in severe weather, including federal investigations of power blackouts such as the ones that hit New York and other cities this month, department officials say.Richardson's speech is scheduled for a convention in San Francisco of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, whose members serve on state public service...

A Reisterstown man who was seriously injured while mowing grass at River Downs in Finksburg on Monday remained in critical condition yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.Jeffrey J. Oyan, 20, of the 3400 block of Winterberry Road is employed by the River Downs Association. He was operating a lawn tractor about noon when, according to state police, he apparently shifted the 84-inch mower's transmission to neutral to gain more speed as he traveled downhill on the edge of Lawndale Road.

A headline in yesterday's editions incorrectly characterized the results of an AIDS drug trial in Thailand. The trial was completed, not cut short.The Sun regrets the error.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced yesterday that a short course of the drug AZT sharply reduced transmission of the AIDS virus from mothers to babies in a Thailand experiment -- offering hope to impoverished countries that cannot offer expensive therapies.The finding could end months of rancorous debate over the ethics of medical trials in the Third World, in which U.S. researchers provide the anti-AIDS drug to some women and placebos to others.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's testimony this afternoon to a federal grand jury could be the best live television of the year.Unfortunately, unless you're one of the 23 grand jurors, you won't see or hear a word of it. That's because Clinton's testimony will be broadcast over closed-circuit TV, via a system that experts say will be capable of foiling even the most determined eavesdroppers."

Setting off an angry debate, a pre-eminent medical journal has charged that the Johns Hopkins University and other institutions planning AIDS prevention trials in Africa violate ethical standards by withholding proven treatments from participants.In a strongly worded editorial, the New England Journal of Medicine said the trials show that U.S. researchers haven't learned much from the notorious Tuskegee experiment, when public health authorities in Alabama withheld treatment from black men who had syphilis.

General Motors Corp. will close its van assembly plant in Baltimore for two weeks next month due to slow vehicle sales.The shutdown, the first since 1992 attributed to slow sales, will idle 3,100 workers at the city's largest manufacturing employer and force layoffs at other area companies producing parts for the GM vans.First-shift workers learned of the company's plan to halt production the weeks of Sept. 8 and Sept. 15 when they reported for work yesterday morning.The announcement was made by Assistant Plant Manager Tony Donatelli in a videotaped message played on televisions throughout the factory.

FireWestminster: Firefighters responded at 1: 25 p.m. Thursday to an auto fire in the 500 block of Baltimore Blvd. Units were out 35 minutes.Westminster: Firefighters from New Windsor and Pleasant Valley assisted Westminster at 1: 19 p.m. Friday, responding to a house fire in the 1100 block of Western Chapel Road. Units were out two hours and 10 minutes.PoliceWestminster: The owner of Westminster Transmission Service, Greenwood Avenue, reported a snowplow was stolen from outside the business between 7: 30 p.m. Monday and 11: 30 a.m. Tuesday.

GM transmission plant stops production early The General Motors Powertrain Baltimore Transmission plant in White Marsh has stopped production earlier than expected, a spokesman said Tuesday, as the company deals with several temporary factory closings this summer because of weak sales. White Marsh's hybrid transmission line stopped last Thursday and is expected to resume production July 13. The Allison transmission line will stop production May 7 and resume July 6. The plant employs about 240 workers.

General Motors said Thursday that more than 7,500 workers, including about 30 in the Baltimore area, have signed up to take buyouts or early retirement as the financially troubled automaker restructures to avoid bankruptcy. The Powertrain Baltimore Transmission Plant in White Marsh will lose about 26 hourly workers. About 238 hourly employees and 40 salaried workers currently work at the plant. And four employees who worked at an assembly plant in Southeast Baltimore that closed in 2005 will take buyouts or retirements.

The General Motors Powertrain Baltimore Transmission Plant will likely have to shut down for a week next month unless demand for the company's vehicles improves. A spokesman for the plant said yesterday it is planning to close shop and temporarily lay off all 239 of it hourly workers for a week beginning Feb. 23. Seventy-nine employees have been laid off since last year because of a slowdown in production at the plant. It is temporarily closing because demand for GM vehicles is expected to remain weak as economic turmoil continues to hurt auto sales.

We financial blowhards have been proclaiming forever that Detroit automakers had to end business as usual. "The need for fundamental shifts in operating procedures is painfully obvious," said Business Week. That was in 1982. It wasn't obvious to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. Let's hope we're right this time. Big Three carmakers are facing their umpteenth crisis since the 1970s because they repeat a 1970s mistake: selling wasteful, giant vehicles in a time of high energy prices. As impending bailouts herald another new era for Detroit, as the Obama team talks energy independence, as the nation prepares to address climate change, American carmakers must finally, irrevocably embrace the future.

Production halted at GM A strike at General Motors' chief axle supplier halted production at GM Powertrain's Baltimore Transmission Plant. About 280 hourly workers were laid off at the White Marsh plant. Operations ceased April 7 when workers stopped manufacturing a hybrid transmission for the Chevrolet Tahoe. Production of a transmission for the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra was stopped March 10. Port cargo rises to $41.5 billion Propelled by a weakening dollar, a surge of exports - especially autos - drove the value of cargo moving through the port of Baltimore last year to a record $41.5 billion, though tonnage increased less than 1 percent, the Maryland Port Authority reported.

Some Halethorpe residents who are clashing with Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. have signed five-year agreements with the utility company to permit the clearing of trees on their property. The agreement between BGE and residents states that the trees near the transmission lines, in which the company has a right of way, will be removed in "approximately five years" or when it is "deemed necessary" and owners will be offered $175 per tree. Even without the agreement, the utility can cut vegetation within 33 feet from both sides of its transmission lines.

American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy said yesterday that they have filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a rate formula to recover the cost of building a $1.8 billion, 290-mile-long, extra-high-voltage transmission line from West Virginia to Frederick. If the formula is approved, the PJM Interconnection, which operates the regional power grid, would use it to charge utilities in 13 states for the use of energy from that system. Maryland is part of that grid.

WHITE MARSH -- Both General Motors Corp. and its workers saw the minting of the Allison Transmission plant's first hybrid transmission yesterday as much more than just a new product. It is a lifeline for both. The nation's largest automaker is producing the industry's first hybrid transmission for light trucks here in a bid to regain market share from foreign competitors such as Toyota Motor Corp. If it is a success, GM plans to expand the product line, which could mean new jobs at the plant.

The Energy Department designated Maryland and most of the Mid-Atlantic yesterday as part of a national corridor targeted for new power lines, giving federal regulators authority to overrule state objections to utility projects deemed critical to keeping the lights on. The region's designation as a "national interest electric transmission corridor" has the potential to minimize delays in getting several proposed transmission lines built in parts of...

General Motors Corp.'s proposed labor contract appears to offer good news for its White Marsh transmission plant. The deal calls for production through at least 2012 at the three plants the facility supplies with transmissions, the United Auto Workers said yesterday. The plants are in Flint and Pontiac, Mich., and Arlington, Texas. "It's going to directly affect us on a positive side -- we're going to have longevity just like they do," said Fred Swanner, president of UAW Local 239, which represents nearly 370 White Marsh workers.