So it occured to me this morning, listening to the bailout news on the radio during my morning commute, that if we were going to purposefullly go into major debt to infuse this country with new lifeblood, why wouldn't we mandate the creation of 150 mpg hybrid electric/gas cars that plug into your garage socket at home?
I remember reading an article last year about a guy working car-by-car to convert guzzlers into green cars, and that they had some crazy miles per gallon stats. Googling about for the guy's work (looking up 100 mpg cars, then 150 mpg hybrid) I found this enterprise.
Yes, by Jove, we do have the technology. ATF trinity is showing off the real deal, despite the difficulty they have had in even getting space in a Big-Three monopolized world . We can build them. 150 miles per gallon SUV's that plug into your home outlets for daily use. Help me flag this reality for all those D.C. wonks who read this site every day.
President-Elect Obama is asking us for ideas. He is asking Congress for a bill he can sign soon after January 20th. Would it not be prudent to include as a cornerstone of that 500-700 billion-dollar some requestedfunds to get this company to build a state of the art facilty here at home and become the world supplier of cars, once again?
These guys at AFS Trinity are asking the US for a 2.5 billion dollar LOAN. Man, I say make it 100 billion and get those cars ROLLING out en masse, 2009. We would immediately start making a huge dent in our dependance on middle east oil. We would put people to work. We would be improving the chances our children will have ice at the earth's poles and clean air to breathe. Is there any reason to wait on this?
Talk about something every American will immediately understand. We might even jump in the streets if a second 100 billion part of the 700 billion package was to subsidize the extreme hybrids so that every American would have an incentive to buy them (they'd be cheaper) over foreign vehicles. Even without, they would already be the first vehicles with positive ROI.
I do think it is high time we let failing companies fail and invest in ideas that make sense. Can you help me front page this notion for a day or so in order that somebody or other putting together the next big "recovery" package will include this type of technology and get this country rolling again?
Oh, and for the non-click through folks, here again is the magic car:
Transition team, are you listening?