General Motors acknowledges that SUVs are going the way of the dinosaur; safety concerns at the world’s biggest green construction project; and the inevitability of solar power’s dominance. We’re halfway through the work week with Wednesday edition of The Daily Five.

G.M. Shifts Focus to Small Cars in Sign of Sport Utility Demise: Mark Tuesday on your calendar as the day the SUV died. Bowing to the reality, General Motors announced yesterday the shuttering of four North American plants which produce sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner cited soaring fuel prices and what the company considers “permanent” shifts in consumer sensibilities as the reason for such drastic cutbacks. Wagoner said GM is moving ahead on the development of two new small cars and the efficient 1.4L turbo engine mentioned in yesterday’s Daily Five. Also on the chopping block: the iconic Hummer line, which will face “evaluation” over the next few weeks. (New York Times)

Strike Ends at Project CityCenter and Cosmopolitan: Workers at Las Vegas’ über-green CityCenter will return to their jobs Wednesday after a short strike on safety concerns. The labor action followed the death of a crane operator — the sixth worker to die since construction began on the 18 million square foot multipurpose complex. CityCenter, which is located adjacent to the MGM Mirage casino, is being billed as the largest LEED-certified project in the world. It features a long list of earth-friendly features, from the re-use and recycling of surplus construction materials to low VOC interior materials. (Las Vegas Now)

The Best Electric Scooters Of 2008: A Review: The scooter industry is enjoying a record year, thanks to soaring gas prices and consumer hunger for greener transportation. And there’s not much greener than an all-electric scooter. The folks at Metaefficient have put together an excellent roundup of 2008’s best sellers, each a plug-in model ready for cheap, zero-emission transportation. Our favorite here at EcoTech Daily? Hands down: the stylish and powerful Vectrix. Capable of highway speeds and almost 70 miles range, the Vectrix could be to a green generation what the Vespa was to the Mods. (Metaefficient)

Wind Power Moves into Deep Waters: Up to this point, offshore wind turbines have been restricted to fairly shallow waters. But a Norwegian and German project is about to change all that with the world’s first floating turbine. StatoilHydro will team with Siemens to build the deep sea turbine, which can be anchored in open ocean up to 700 meters deep. The new design will utilize a spar buoy, common in deep sea oil and gas operations. (Technology Review)

Solar Energy Will Dominate in 20 Years, Says Famous Futurist: Ray Kurzweil has built his reputation out of making outlandish technology predictions which happen to prove true. His latest: solar power will dominate the energy industry before 2030. Kurzwell points out that the sun provides 10 thousand times more energy than we’d ever need to meet all our power demands. Kurzweil applies his Law of Accelerating Returns — which holds that technological price performance doubles each year — to divine the inevitability of solar power’s dominance. (CleanBeta)