The problem is that there isn't a clear alternative & renewable enery source. Even doubling our Nuclear plants wouldn't really take that huge of a dent from our dependence on petroleum. Not only that, we keep using more energy, not less.

How are hybrids worst for the environment than a gas engine? It's still technically a gas engine.

This. Also for electric cars, they may not be as clean as most people think because the electricity comes from dirty sources FOR NOW. That doesn't mean that this will always be the case. There's obviously a push to move towards renewable sources of energy for electricity production. As time passes and there are more technological innovations as well as cost reductions, renewable sources will become a much larger portion of where we get our electricity from. Whenever that does happen, electric cars will be far cleaner the gas powered cars.

The other thing you have to realize is that by the time electricity sources become more clean, we will need the technology for electric cars and a whole new infrastructure to adapt to them to be ready to go. If we start working on all of that now, it will save a lot of time later. You can't just wait 25, 50, 100, or how ever many years it takes for electricity to become more "green" and then be like "ok now that we took care of that let's start thinking about how we can use electric cars now."

There's no immediate / short term solution for lower gas prices but of course the GOP will blame Obama as they do for EVERY THING.

The U.S. contains ~ 2% of the worlds oil and consumes ~ 20%. The solution isn't drill, drill, drill.. Its much more complex. Drill baby drill is nothing but a bumper sticker.

Between the amount of fossil fuels and petroleum it takes to produce them and ship them, to the fact that the batteries are difficult to dispose of, in the long run they're worse for the environment than a conventional non-hybrid gasoline engine.

I agree on the fact that a primary issue is the lack of a viable alternative energy. Nuclear power would be a start, but again, it would take a whole lot of nuclear power plants to offset our reliance on fossil fuels. Nuclear plants also use a lot of energy to build, and take quite some time before they become operational.

I was thinking of buying a Yaris or something like that as my DD on days that are rainy because people around here lose their minds when it rains just a bit. Also if I dont get to work early enough and dont get my usual corner spot its door ding city in our company lot... That Yaris is looking really good now

My understanding is that half of the electricty produced are from coal and oil ,and I believe in the future solar, wind, and hydro will become the majority.

An electric engine is very efficient and a gasoline engine is not because a lot of the energy is lost through heat and friction. So less energy is needed to make the electric car travel than a gas car.

I don't drive much but I still want to own an electric exotic one day. The sooner we become less dependent on middle western oil the less bs I have to read in the news.

I think those are things that will be fixed with technological innovation and more widespread use of electric cars. With expanded production and production in more areas, the shipping costs/pollution should be significantly reduced. We'll just have to wait and see if someone can come up with a practical way to recycle their batteries or maybe develop different battery technology that will be easier to recycle.

Funny. I actually found an electralotus in my parking lot a couple days ago. Its the first time i've seen a tesla in person. Wish I could have heard it run.

http://i1238.photobucket.com/albums/...ness/tesla.jpg

I'm a veteran of the oil shortages going back to the 70's. And ever since then the ones who fought the construction of new nuke plants and new refineries and drilling in oil rich areas weren't the Republicans, but were the tree hugging leftists and those who lived in fantasy land. If we would have done those things 30 years ago we wouldn't be still talking about it. I'm no fan of the Republicans but it is partly Obama's fault and the fault of the idiots in his party, his base, and those that preceded him.

I'm very much for "green energy", but it will take a long time. We can't burn more dirty coal for electricity. We need nuke plants powering every major city. We'll need newer/better technology. Windmills won't due. Algae is a joke.

In the meantime,
Canada is begging for us to buy its oil. They said since we don't allow the building of the Keystone pipeline, they will have to sell the oil to China. We invested billions in South America/Goerge Soros to produce oil that will be sold to China. Blame Obama? of course not, he's just THE President, nothing is his fault.

I'm also not a fan of the Republicans, but what you said is right on! 100% agree.
We don't need leaders that get on the air telling us about every problem (that we already know) we have. We need them to fix the problems! In private industry, they would be looking for another job/line of work....

I went to an info session for Exxon Mobil last year (bastards won't hire me :p) and they said that they had invested hundreds of millions of dollars into creating biofuel from algae.

I know how to get the gas price down - It's easy
 

It's a fact that we refine oil & make it into gasoline. It's a fact that we refine our oil & Canada's oil & sell it all over the world to the highest bidders. Since it's mined/drilled in the U.S.A & or off our shores, & it is refined in the U.S.A, we have 100% the right to tax it. Tax it high if they want to export it out of our country. If the oil companies lose money exporting our & Canada's oil/gasoline, then they'll find happyness selling it here in our country. We will have much, much more gasoline availible, & just like natural gas, the high sypplies will drop the gasoline price substantialy. Not long ago the oil companies were the big bad oil companies. What happened? What changed? What's wrong with my idea?

What's wrong with $2.00 gasoline? It was under $2 just 3&1/2 years ago.

where do you get the electricity for you Leaf? Let's invade and take over Canada, build a few hundred nuke reactors up there in the tundra, just in case they melt, design electric slots in all the roads, and we have a never ending supply for massivly torqy cars that are lightweight since they have no batterys.

Whatever, most of the newer hybrid batteries are NiMH (which are recyclable) and they last 8+ years. The lobbyists and propaganda groups from the oil companies are doing a great job in brainwashing people. :shakes head: