Keeping the (Electric) Car Running
When it comes to electric cars, its all about leadership. At least, that was the gist of a panel hosted by Tom Friedman at a Google-Brookings Institution conference on plug-in vehicles this week in Washington.
Friedman, a supporter of solar and wind technologies said he's shocked there are no credits for such Earth-friendly innovations. "You just couldn't make that up!" he exclaimed.
With gas prices over $4 a gallon, Sue Tierney of the consulting firm Analysis Group Inc. argued that the American public is open to a solution involving electric cars.
John Podesta, president of the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, said that the U.S. should start following in the footsteps of other countries, like Japan and Korea, which have invested in battery technology.
Podesta and Tierney said that going hand-in-hand with government incentives to invest in new technologies, should be regulations that cap carbon, forcing industries to come up with more energy-efficient solutions. Penalties would fund the investment portion of their idea.
While not all of the panel's participants agreed that federal policies will provide answers to our energy crisis, there was certainly a consensus that America needs to be leading the way when it comes to making plug-in electrics more widely available.
Comments:
Posted 06/13/2008 06:04pm with
Tom Friedman can alway sbe counted on to be a know nothing. Perhaps the main reason there are no subsidies for such vehicles is because they don’t really exist. Nor has anyone ever felt that their exorbitant costs to buy and ever higher costs of ownership (the EV-1 battery pack had to be replaced every 5 years at a cost of over $20,000) made any sense. Nor are these vehicle the “zero emission” contraptions their short sighted proponents claim – when was the last time you ever saw any zero emission electricity coming out of a electrical outlet? The zero emission claim is pure fraud, like most of what Friedman claims. Wind power is practically useless and has had zero impact, despite the billions in subsidies and tax breaks. The problem with Friedman is that he has no expertise about alternative energies. Anything that he thinks won’t produce carbon is alright with him. Except nuclear power. But he was the guy who helped block the only significant source of carbon free energy for years, which is why we produce so much carbon now. I’ve yet to hear him apologize for putting us in this situation of excessive carbion emissions by blocking nuclear power. People like him are the reason we have carbon issues today. Sure, I’m going to listen to someone brainless enough to believe and parrot the swill put out by the global wind industry.
There is also the stupidity that these people really believe that
there is anything to be gained by competitng with Japan and Korea on batteries. I will point out that GM is working hand a glove with LG Chem (the world’s largest producer of batteries) to provide batteries for the Volt. Now why do these people think we need to compete with
Japan and Korea? Or anybody else? If they build batteries, we’ll be able to buy them, just like we buy their cars, TVs and everything else. This is a sad example of how brainless these people really are. Actually, GM is also working with A123 Systems, which is a US company and a very successful battery company which has created the batteries for most of the world’s power tools and is currently providing them to those wishing to convert a Toyota Prius to
plug-in status. There is also EESTor, also an American company which MAY produce the world’s most advanced (and most practical battery) this year, an event which will doom all those state supported battery builders around the world. And EEStor never received a penny in taxpayer money. If these folks sitting around this table don’t know EEStor, they aren’t competent to make any pronouncements about the technology at all. These folks are rank amateurs. Why would anyone expect them to know anythign in the first palce? THomas Friedman recently made a complete fool of himself by ranting against GM and claiming they only buit gas guzzlers, when in fact they don’t build any guzzlers and have more 30 MPG plus cars on the market than any Japanese company. You just can’t explain stupid. You just can’t explain Friedman’s mental processes, nor his logic.
Posted 06/14/2008 12:01pm with
thebike made some good points. The point should be made that innovation often comes from the education system, colleges and universities which then sell the patent/concept to the highest bidder. So if we are prone to invest in innovation, let’s invest in a decent school system that can deliver qualified, educated and creative individuals to the institutions of higher learning and research (instead of athletes, following a similar path from lower schools to the professional teams).
Posted 06/17/2008 02:11pm with
You can’t invest in EEstor yet because they’re private. But you CAN invest in Zenn Motor Company (symbol: ZNNMF). I used TradeKing, one of many online brokers. Zenn isn’t traded a lot (yet!), so I had to call in—but they didn’t charge me extra for talking to the broker. Maybe EEstor is all smoke and mirrors – but if it’s NOT – if EEstor is REAL, then it is going to be the holy grail—no exaggeration.
Zenn has the EXCLUSIVE license to use EEstor ultracaps in consumer vehicles up to size of mid-size sedans. They plan on manufacturing a powertrain and licensing it out to many auto makers using the “Intel Inside” business model. Zenn also owns a portion of EEstor. Zenn’s stock is going to going to dwarf Google’s stock explosion IF EEStor succeeds in making a commercially viable ultracapacitor.
Look, I’m not pumping Zenn’s stock. I invested $2000 at $4.13 per share (it’s up 20% since then). By all means: Buyer Beware. Do your research: I’ve read everything on Zenn and EEstor for nearly a year now. My thinking is, if EEstor works, I can’t afford NOT to have chucked in the spare $1000 or $2000 I had rotting in checking account surplus or a forgotten savings account. If I lose it, fine. It was a risk worth taking. If Zenn’s stock soars to (wild guess) $1000+ per share, I’m rolling in money. EEstor, if it works, will change the world. It’s worth a couple grand to me—that I can afford to lose—to take a chance on that. If you can’t afford to lose it, don’t invest.
http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=ZNNMF