MAKEOVER OF THE FAMILY CAR

MAKEOVER OF THE FAMILY CAR


Internal combustion engines have been my passion (as well as my vocation) since childhood. With a tearful eye, it’s time to say farewell to that lovely deep-throated roar of unmuffled exhaust and lift the curtain on the age of electric passenger cars.
America’s commitment to the global market has done undisputed service to help the emerging nations to prosper. Our market for crude oil from OPEC and other oil producers has transferred American wealth overseas in sums that boggle the mind. This inverse bubble threatens to redefine the term “emerging nations”. We face the prospect of emerging back to an agrarian economy.
Just as the harness makers did all they could to delay public acceptance of the automobile, so the Oil industry is doing its best to push into the future the arrival of the plug-in family car. The lavish campaign contributions by oil companies to incumbent legislators may account for the sluggish Capitol Hill response to the plug-in car revolution.
In addition to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, the conversion of existing gas-guzzlers to plug-ins is an industry waiting to emerge. Not that there will suddenly be cobwebs on oil refineries; diesel trucks will still be contributing their share of greenhouse gas. A reduction in fuel prices will produce equilibrium in the mix of plug-ins and piston engines.
The consumption of fossil fuels will, no doubt, continue until the oil below the Arabian sands has been pumped out to the last drop. Switching to plug-ins appears to follow Winston Churchill’s definition:” Americans can be counted on to do the right thing, after they’ve exhausted all other possibilities.”
The transition to plug-ins is bound to reveal unanticipated consequences. The mom and pop gas stations may all become Starbucks.
We may actually look back and deliver a vote of thanks for the appearance of four dollar gasoline.

Richard Todd 8/14/08 Snoqualmie WA toddforcongress.org