Comments on: Legislation Mixes Drilling and Plug-In Hybrids

By: Rei

Rei — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:25:31 +0000

The EV/PHEV credits section is a disaster to those who are interested in hyperefficient three wheelers, such as the Aptera Typ-1 or the VentureOne. Despite them having normal car safety features, they're deliberately excluded from the bill, which explicitly states that to get the credit, the vehicle must have four wheels. This is going to be a huge blow to those manufacturers if it passes.

By: sean t

sean t — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:24:26 +0000

To do all or most of the above, we may have to ban the donations from oil/car/whatever companies to the political parties?

By: Brian in Highland

Brian in Highland — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:42:28 +0000

Oh, yea thats it, another plan to bail out american auto companies who have sat on their hands for years and fallen behind our to sheer arogance. Yes, lets give them more help, this is exactly what they have been waiting for. The free government bail out program. Put it right up there with saving the airlines everytime they get in a bit o a spot. Oh, and lets save Amtrak again. How about something useful like use the money to provide tax breaks for americans buying hybrids or other fuel efficient cars, and taxing the crap out of the fuel guzzling SUV’s.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:57:43 +0000

Need2Change said, "But we have an energy problem that needs to be solved..."

I couldn't disagree more. There is no shortage of oil on the market. Americans are not entitled to free, or almost free, energy. Energy is just finally being priced by the market at a reasonable level. If people refused to drive automobiles that averaged 25mpg and insulated their homes we would not be complaining about energy prices.

This "energy problem" is a ploy to encourage continued, wasteful consumption and record profits for the energy companies.

By: Paul Beerkens

Paul Beerkens — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:58:48 +0000

Most pesticides and fertilizers are made of oil. We need these to maintain the current food yields. Let’s save the oil for that.

There is absolutely no point in spending our energy and money on drilling for more oil right now if that means that we are going to neglect looking for alternatives.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:05:14 +0000

Deranged Stu

"the stone age did not end because we ran out of stones"

The point is humans discovered iron steel aluminum cement and could construct better structures(ancient Greek structures notwithstanding) , even though there were still plenty of stones on the ground.

I am not naive enough to think that we will leave oil in the ground ,Big Oil just can make too much money off of us.

If we can produce enough solar to power our electric cars and there is a carbon tax making it cost prohibitive for coal and oil to be burned, maybe just maybe....

By: Bryce

Bryce — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:44:54 +0000

Bring on the electric car pumps. : ) O I can’t wait.

By: Need2Change

Need2Change — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:54:05 +0000

Let me be perfectly clear -- I hate the Oil companies and the way the Republicans helped the US consume too much oil. And I hate the profits that the oil companies now earn.

But we have an energy problem that needs to be solved, and it seems like energy companies should help solve the problem.

The tax credits had a function -- mostly to encourage greater oil production in the U.S. Taking away the credits,increases the reliance on foreign oil. I don't think we want to do this.

It seems like we should be working with the energy companies to solve the energy problem (even if they are the devil), and not working against them.
.

By: Deranged Stu

Deranged Stu — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:40:11 +0000

@Giant
What exactly are you saving these reserves for? Hopefully if things go right we won't need oil either way. I know people think of offshore drilling as too big of an answer but honestly if it helps for more positive legislation to be passed I'm for it.

I also agree it's time for more drastic action.

By: Giant

Giant — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:10:05 +0000

@Deranged Stu
So you wanna drill. I don't know what the reserves are off-shore, but from what I have read on ANWR, there's enough there for about 1 year at today's US consumption. I sort of think we need to save that precious natural resource for the next generation (or the next etc etc).

It is time for more drastic action.