It is for the greater good of the world to transition from fossil fueled vehicles to electric and earth friendly vehicles. Government mandates are the fastest and best way to make the transition. That’s why we have leaders and Nobelists to make decisions that the ordinay person is wont do on their own.

PrincessKaren on December 10, 2008 at 3:37 pm

The way COBRAMA is sizing up MT. Hopra, he must be thinking “More cushin for the…..”

californiascreaming on December 10, 2008 at 4:40 pm

I know this is OT but I have to ask, is Michelle smuggling a black Volkswagon in her trunk or is that her a$$?

Blanco on December 10, 2008 at 5:32 pm

You can’t be serious… are you? Did you actually graduate from law school?

DEMOSTHENES12 on December 11, 2008 at 12:50 am

Electric cars are great, but everyone is missing one little, but important thing:
How do you charge them? With electricity.
How do we get electricity? Through our power plants.
Which fuel is the used the most to create electricity? COAL! Some estimates put it at 80% of our total electricity production, but it is well over 50%.
What industry did Obama promise to bankrupt during his campaign? The COAL industry!
So go ahead and buy your little electric cars. But be prepared for huge costs to power it, subsidies or not. There will be huge taxes put on them once they are mandatory.
A few points to ponder: domestic autos are the better than the foreign ones these days; there is no global warming; we have enough oil to fuel the world for the next 100 years or more.
Electeric cars are not the answer now; maybe in the future when there is actually a need. Remember, necessity is the mother of invention. When it is necessary to find an alternative fuel, American ingenuity and knowhow will find the cheapest alternative. And that, in the infamous words of Baretta, you can take to the bank.

you are right on December 11, 2008 at 7:32 am

They can take the Tesla and stuff it. 250 miles On a single charge? WOW!!!! OMG!!!! REALLY!!!! What happens after 249 miles and an emergency arises? Would I have to make my kids wait 8 hours in the rain at the Mall or movies why this thing charges?
I will keep my Viper ACR thank you. It’s faster, corners better, is limited in range only by open fuel stations.
The thing these people do not understand people who buy sports cars do so for more than just the speed. It’s the whole driving experience. It’s the sound of the exhaust at 6000 Rpm’s. It’s the sound of the air being sucked into the intake system. And no electric car will ever compare. The whine of an electrical motor spooling up just does not compare. People who drive Vipers, ZR1’s 911’s ect do so for the thrill. People who drive Tesla’s do so to make a statement. Funny thinkg is their statement is based on the Fraud and Junk Science of Global Warming Ohh wait now it’s Climate Change since the world is cooling not warming

Marty Fee on December 11, 2008 at 10:31 am

I guess you don’t care that your 6000 rpm’s are destroying the planet and that your ‘thrill’ is destroying your children’s future health. Just as an example look at the smog in Riverside California.. without regulations all cities will look like that. It’s this collective idea that ones actions don’t impact the world. But collectively this greed for consumption and ‘thrills’ will lower your children’s standard of living.

PrincessKaren on December 11, 2008 at 12:01 pm

God, Debbie– you are almost as vapid as some of your fans.
1st off, to counter your misinformation and idiocy: Under the Energy Independence and Security Act (passed in December 2007), Congress allocated $25 billion in direct LOANS for automakers to produce “advanced” high-efficiency and alternative energy vehicles. Tesla fits this specification to a tee, and is exemplary of the type of company Congress had in mind when it passed the act. Congress just recently decided to take proposed $15 billion for Detroit out of this fund, which doesn’t leave too much for its intended purpose. The crash of the economy has made things harder for all automakers, including Tesla, but the government realized even before the recession that advanced vehicle makers may need a kick-start to be competitive. But due to pollution concerns, America’s dependence on foreign oil, and the scientific consensus on global warming, we need to shift away from fossil fuel vehicles. And the only way to bring down the prices for alternatives are to increase their production (ever heard of economies of scale?) Sure it’s not completely abiding by your oh-so-treasured free market, but subsidies for alternatives are only serving to balance out the negative externalities from running our internal combustion engines (ICE) for so long.
Responding to “you are right,” although it is true that electric cars are charged by utilities, centralized power plants are much more efficient (and often cleaner) than your car’s gas engine. A natural gas power plant (the kind that provides 25% of the nation’s power) is 40% efficient (compared with 18% efficiency of an ICE). Coal power is also increasing in efficiency, and new technologies allow for carbon capture and scrubbing of emissions. It’s not a perfect world, but it’s FAR easier to control emissions from the nation’s 2,776 power plants than from our 3,000,000 tailpipes. Not to mention that both wind and solar photovoltaic energy has been growing at a 30% rate for the past couple years– a figure we will likely see increase exponentially considering Obama’s energy nominations. (It’s worth noting that Spain has been increasing their solar panel production by 600% per year, so a 20% reliance on solar and 20% reliance on wind in the US over the next 10 years, which would displace coal’s generation altogether, is entirely possible, although optimistic).
And to Marty Fee, you are SUCH an ignorant FUCK. Nice job junking the world for your personal enjoyment. I bet you drive around in a moped, considering no one lacking a high school science education could afford a Viper. I drive a supercharged M3, and cherish my exhaust note– but will gladly sacrifice it so my grandchildren to know the natural beauty of this planet. The Tesla has amazing performance, and I would buy it in a second if it indeed drops in price to $57,000. People that buy cars for their ‘disturbance of the peace’ potential rather than their performance are just trying to compensate for something.

Chuck on December 11, 2008 at 3:58 pm

I can’t believe that anyone would be so brazen as to think that we can affect the earth’s climate. The earth has been around for millions of years and has adapted to everything. If we are indeed creating “global warming”, and if it is bad, the earth will adapt. Maybe the earth is smarter than us and will kill us all off. Then the environmentalist wackos will be happy. Get a clue people. We CAN’T change the climate. If we could, we already would have and someone would have cornered the market on it. From everything the “enlightened” say about global warming, they want us to spend trillions of dollars through the Kyoto treaty only to save 0.1 degrees of temperature rise over 10 years. What a deal. Screw Kyoto, Ssrew tesla Motors, screw government bail outs for anyone and most of all, screw global wamring supporters. By the way, I work for GM and hope they file chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Nobody should get subsidies…….for anything! If Tesla wants to build a stupid electric car, good for them! If you want to buy one, good for you. But don’t expect me to pay for it with my tax dollars so you can “feel good” about your purchase. Use your own damn money.
Drill here, drill now, so we can get away from dependency on foreign oil. Build more nuclear power plants. Talk about clean! And it’s safe. I am so sick and tired of “do good liberals, (aka “progressives”) that keep telling me what they want to do with my money.

you are right on December 12, 2008 at 6:54 am

Ladies & Gentlemen , all that glitters is not gold.
We have all been lied about oil & gas. You really need to research everything. I do oil contracts.
Look at the size of this planet !
GOOGLE it or follow this link.
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911
The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in April (’08) that only
scientists and oilmen knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a
revised report (hadn’t been updated since ’95) on how much oil was in
this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota; western South Dakota; and
extreme eastern Montana … check THIS out:
The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe
Bay & Gull Island ( plenty of light sweet crude for over 300 years, and has the potential to eliminate all America an dependence on
foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at
503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at only
$50 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $2.5 trillion.
Gasoline would be less than $2.00 a gallon for the rest of yur life.
U.S.Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online – 4/20/2006 Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the
surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in
the world is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President
Bush mandated its extraction.
They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders,
than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:
-8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
-18-times as much oil a s Iraq
-21-times as much oil as Kuwait
-22-times as much oil as Iran
-500-times as much oil as Yemen – and it’s all right here in the Western United States.
Do not believe Lesly Stall & 60 Min as well as the Drive by media aka MSN . Brit Hume is using Debbie as a research tool. Did you know that Debbie.
Lindsey Williams was told to shut up or the Oil executive were going to knock him off !
Full of BS.
HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this!? Because the
democrats, environmentalists and left wing republicans have blocked all
efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil.
James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in
this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels. Untapped. That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.
OOPS ! I did it again told the truth.
Oil and The Gusher of Lies worth you time !
http://www.robertbryce.com/
Robert Bryce’s work has appeared in numerous publications including Atlantic Monthly, Slate, Salon, American Conservative, Washington Post and The Guardian. He is the managing editor of Energy Tribune and is a contributing writer for the Texas Observer. His third book, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence,” . He lives in Austin.
Robert Bryce’s articles have appeared in dozens of publications including the Atlantic Monthly, Slate, New York Times, Washington Post, American Conservative, The Nation, Washington Spectator and The Guardian. His first book, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, received rave reviews and was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2002 by Publishers Weekly. His second book, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America’s Superstate, was published 2004. Bryce spent 12 years writing for the Austin Chronicle.
He now works as the managing editor of Energy Tribune, a Houston-based newsletter. He is also a contributing writer at the Texas Observer.

Johnny V on December 13, 2008 at 2:30 pm