Capital Commerce

Warner and 100 MPG Hybrids

By James Pethokoukis

Posted: August 26, 2008

Jimmy P. at the DNC—This from Mark Warner's keynote: "You know, America has never been afraid of the future, and we shouldn't start now. If we choose the right path, every one of these challenges is also an opportunity. Look at energy. If we actually got ourselves off foreign oil, we can make our country safer. We'll start to solve global warming. And with the right policies, within 24 months, we'll be building 100 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrid vehicles right here - with American technology and with American workers."

Me: Where's the energy going to come from to power all those millions of cars plugged in every night across America? Renewables? Not yet. I don't see how this happens without more nukes, an idea Obama is decidedly cool on.

energy

The Dems views on all this are just wimpy-We will never win anything by backing off-conservation efforts are great -but we need to be leaders -make this energy problem our manhatten project-our race to the moon-these problems will not be solved by obama or McCain-they will be solved by vibrant capitalism and American ingenuity as long as Govt. intervention and debilitating regulations stay out of the way-

woody of IA @ Aug 29, 2008 07:03:37 AM

conserve fuel

Also remember back in the 70s when we did start to make smaller cars after the embargo. Guess what happened! They raised the price of gas because they said we weren't using enough!!

joe wilson of IN @ Aug 28, 2008 09:42:50 AM

Faulty Economics

It doesn't matter if the amount of oil from expanded offshore drilling doesn't match the increase in demand by the time it's available. Say that demand still outpaces supply in that period. Prices will go up. But if we didn't drill for more oil, this scarcity would be even worse and the prices would be even higher.

And Bill, you have your causation backwards. People don't conserve gasoline in order to drop the price. They conserve because the price is too high to consume the amount they currently consume. "Asking Americans to conserve" is pointless. They will conserve as much as makes sense for their personal finances. Asking them to do more is asking them to lower their quality of life for the greater good. It's kind of like asking people to voluntarily pay more taxes, which has been tried and has brought in nearly no revenue.

Erik of PA @ Aug 27, 2008 19:30:38 PM

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Capital Commerce

Capital Commerce

U.S. News business reporter Matthew Bandyk examines the issues, people, and debates that shape the nexus of political and economic life in the nation's capital.

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