High Gas Prices - No Need for Hybrid Incentives

Bob, you are absolutely wrong. In fact we can and should INCREASE incentives for hybrid vehicles. We must press on the automotive industy to convert their production lines to hybrid only, and just because there is momentum, that is no reason to try to stop good things from happening.

Once Hybrids, super efficient gas engines and bio-diesel are the norm, we'll all be less impacted by situations like we face today.

Well, $4.00 per gallon fuel is nothing new to the rest of the world. Do we have a right to our 400 HP SUVs, and 130HP personal water craft? The rest of the world (at least Europe) said no when they refused to send us their fuel surpluses.

What to people do over there? Same thing our parents and grandparents used to do here. Make every trip count, take care of your cars, carpool, etc. Take the bus or train when possible.

I loved Germany becuase I could catch a train anywhere, anytime. You want to go hiking in the forest? There are city busses with stops in the forest. If we had that infrastructure here, can you imagine what life would be like?

We have had fuel efficient cars prior to the 70's, but we didn't want them. Dad had a 64 Falcon, 170 CI motor, 3 speed on the column that got 30 MPG on the highway and (comfortably) sat 6 adults. My 61 BelAir got 25 MPG and sat 9 teenagers. 68 VW bug sat 5 and got 38 on the highway. (all at 55 MPH, not 70 or 80). My huge Dodge Ram diesel will pull my house off the foundation, and get 20 MPG doing it - others with the same truck and lighter gearing and manual transmission report 24 MPG.

We can still do a lot with a gallon of gas, but no one wants to until they can't afford that gallon. The wife now says her wonferful Durango she just had to have a few years ago is a piece of gas-guzzling junk that must go.

Yeah, but look who funds our politicians. The oil companies. Bush is beholden to these companies and he's not the only one. Remember too that people in Europe pay a lot more per capita in taxes to their government so that they can have a great infrastructure. Americans always vote for less taxes. All these things we want to make our country less dependent on petroleum (this includes plastics, cosmetics, clothing, etc.) costs money and the only way to get that money is to raise taxes. Now, what politician will stand on a platform and say "I plan to raise taxes to pay for improvements"? Won't get many votes for John Q. Public.

The incentives for the hybrids are about down to nill anyways. But the incentive to purchase one when you are getting an average of 45 mpg. is still there. It still hurts to have to go to the pump but at least the gas goes a little further. So, is the Hummer incentive still in place? (I also use the price of gas as the sole reason not mow my lawn. I haven't purchased an electric mower yet. My neighbors look at me sidways but hey I'm helping the air quality!)

Here in SoCal, the HOV lane incentive is huge. In fact, I bought my SUV from a woman who was selling it to buy a hybrid for her commute to work. As soon as the HOV incentive became law, Priuses started selling like hotcakes. When I searched cars.com for my used 2002, I got a listing of 68 Priuses within a 30-mile radius. This was about a month before the incentive. A month or so after the incentive hit, I did a new search, same criteria: nothing, nada, zip.

Demand is still high here, but the incentive is on the verge of maxing out the 50,000-or-75,000 car limit. The only thing holding it back seems to be the availability of the cars. Once the maximum is reached and the tax credits are exhausted, I'd expect sales to go back to more reasonable levels, spurred only by high fuel prices.

Jan