The Week (my favorite weekly newsmagazine — in fact the only newsmagazine I read) has a regular one-page feature called "Briefing," which provides a nice summary of a hot topic. This week they cover hybrid cars.
The Pew Center on Global Climate Change says that if all the cars in the US were 60 mpg hybrids, "we would save more oil than we now import from the Middle East." And if we started using "plug-in hybrids," which could deliver 100 mpg or even more if you used them in cities, "there would be incalculable savings from the reduction in pollution and the ending of the nation's dependence on foreign oil," as well as improved national security. That last benefit alone is enough to make it worthwhile for the government to give incentives to the auto companies to work on the problem, says former CIA director James Woolsey.
Even so, automakers would be reluctant to make plug-in hybrids, because the price of oil is still relatively low and people don't want to give up their gas guzzling SUVs.
That's why many advocates say there must be a massive government commitment—something akin to the Manhattan Project, which produced the first nuclear bombs—to overcome the technological and economic obstacles.
Forget about a manned mission to Mars. Let's challenge NASA to make a vehicle for earthlings. Link
