Posted on 08/23/2005 6:38:32 AM PDT by Cat loving Texan
City rallies around futuristic car Plug-in hybrids will help environment, economy and security, supporters say.
By Stephen Scheibal
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
It is something like a capitalist's dream: Citizens petitioning to buy a product, governments setting aside money to help them pay for it, business leaders talking about the economic benefits, environmentalists proclaiming the earth's gratitude for every purchase.
There was, perhaps, only one problem with the mass shopping spree that Austin officials imagined with great fanfare at City Hall on Monday: The product doesn't, per se, exist.
The invention is known as a plug-in hybrid vehicle. It is a car that runs largely off a battery, switching to gasoline as electricity runs low. DaimlerChrysler AG expects to deliver the first such vehicles to Austin and other cities next year.
The vehicles partially replace gas pumps with electrical sockets. Owners plug their cars into a wall outlet, recharging the battery with the energy that fuels their refrigerators and air conditioners. According to the city, 70 to 80 cents on a power bill would provide as much energy as a $2.50 gallon of gas.
Plug-in hybrids could go 35 miles or more without burning gasoline and potentially cut the nation's gasoline use by 70 percent, city officials said.
The city wants to promote both the supply and demand of plug-in hybrids. Mayor Will Wynn and other officials launched the campaign before more than 100 people Monday.
Wynn declared that Austin Energy, the city-owned electric utility, eventually plans to provide $1 million to help people and entities buy the vehicles. He also said Austin and other local governments will commit to adding plug-in hybrids to various auto fleets.
And area officials and community leaders contributed the first signatures to a petition encouraging automakers to produce more plug-in hybrids.
Wynn said the drive will only begin in Austin, saying he expects other cities to sign on as well. He said the technology promises to lessen the nation's dependence on foreign oil, cut down on gasoline bills and improve air quality.
"The benefits are across the board," Wynn said. "What we need are a lot of partners."
The announcement came 10 days before Central Texas gets its most direct lesson ever about the importance of clean-burning vehicles. Beginning Sept. 1, cars and trucks in Travis and Williamson counties will have to pass an emissions test to earn inspection stickers, a change the region has accepted as part of a federally approved plan to improve air quality.
Environmentalists such as Brandi Clark, co-chairwoman of the Austin Sustainable Business Council, said the plug-in hybrids initiative could be a watershed effort to clean up Central Texas' air and a boon to consumers plagued by high gas prices.
Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce Chairman Kirk Watson said the launch was a "historic moment," reinforcing Austin's position as a center of environmentally friendly technology while allowing taxpayers and rate-payers — not overseas oil interests — to benefit from the area's transportation spending.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said the vehicles could help the nation avoid oil-driven entanglements overseas.
"It's a national security issue," Doggett said of the initiative. "The only way that we will get change is by things like we're doing this morning."
If the oil company monopolies wanted us to conserve, they could have accomplished this many years ago. This is smoke and mirrors, as the prices go up. It's profits that run this world. They buy out any truly useful fuel saving idea.
Plus, diesels can be used to pull heavy loads. I don't see an electric battery pulling a load of logs over the continental divide.
They not going to get into that. The environmental wackos like their fellow Dem's, will up the demands once the batteries are in use. They need this to complain about in the future. As you know the mentality, do it now and get instant pleasure, no worries about the future.
Okay, so now we'll add the load of a million recharging cars to the drain of 8 million air conditioners on every hot afternoon of the summer? Con Ed will LOVE that.
I can't wait to buy a new Buick Blackoutmaker.
Actually, I think it probably does. Central power stations are far more efficient in their usage of fossil fuels than auto engines. Total efficiency would also have to include transmission losses, but I suspect that there would somewhat of an overall gain.
Of course, the BEST approach is to build more nukes, but I'll bet that the same eco-nuts in Austin pushing this "high-tech plug-in car" would have collective apoplexy if you were to suggest building nuke plants to power them.
The MASSIVE increase in energy demand will require TONS of power plant building, which the liberals are not prepared to accept, and crises will necessarily result. Further even if they are built, these also increase costs, and can "pollute" just as much as any other energy creation method.
I'm all for reducing emissions into our already polluted air. PLUS if it is going to save me money I'm ALL for it. Do the math. Plugging in a car, reducing carbon emissions PLUS saving money, sounds like a good bargain. I LOVE bargains!
Plugging in a car is a inconvenience?? Not to me, and I'll bet a lot of other people feel the same way.
Maybe if all you're doing is going to work and driving in town but not for most. Will it really reduce emmissions? Unproven. And we've got the city of Austin getting involved trying to get "partners?" The sound of this is not good.
The hydrogen economy is several years if not decades away. It will require massive government spending and armies of bureaucrats if the government wants to force us into it. Just look at HDTV, a much smaller project. Hybrids and hybrid plugins are here and now. People want them because of higher fuel prices, feeling good about being efficient and innovative, and it gives them something to brag about. We should be supporting this market phenomena, not tearing it down because it's related to environmentalism.
And not one moment sooner. Period. Even if I have to start refining my own d*mn fuel.
If push comes to shove I would buy a high fuel mileage Honda Civic or similar car that I could drive 200 or 300 miles before plugging in the gas nozzle and when the battery goes bad it would cost $50 bucks not $500.
Oh really Mr Doggett? I'l tell you about security. I was able to walk in YOUR office without so much as even having to present an I.D. to work on YOUR computer! It hat had e-mails on the screen, Word documents in my full sight and I could have had access to everything on your computer without ANYBODY in the office to oversee what I was doing!!
So...if you want to talk security you should begin with YOUR own office!
All good points. A sane energy policy IMHO would be to open up domestic drilling, and build several hundred Nuke plants. Use the Nuke power to convert solid and gaseous hydrocarbons into liquid fuels.
"Do the math. Plugging in a car, reducing carbon emissions PLUS saving money, sounds like a good bargain. I LOVE bargains! "
How is your electricity produced?
True - but a savings is a savings.... I ccould spend my current $80 a month on the credit card at the pump and pay it off at the end of the month or I could spend $25 extra on electricity at the end of the month.
We should be supporting this market phenomena, not tearing it down because it's related to environmentalism.
THIS IS A CITY OF AUSTIN CAMPAIGN ENCOURAGING THIS. THEY ARE PARTNERING WITH THEIR CITY OWNED ELECTRIC COMPANY. THAT IS NOT A MARKET PHENOMINON. If private citizens want to buy hybrids, I have no problem.
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