Even though there are hearings all over C-Span we still have no idea what deals are being made in the back rooms (remember that reporter in Denver at the Dem Convention who was accosted/arrested by the police just because he was trying to take pictures of all the big money people and Obama’s top aides?).
My true fear is that congress and the administration will cajole (read “force”) the automakers into retooling to make more hybrid cars based on the current technology - this will cost billions. The current hybrid technology in this country doesn’t even give the kind of mileage that diesel does (and diesel is very clean now thanks in large part to President Bush’s administration mandating a 95% reduction in sulfur for highway diesel). Not only is the mileage less but there is the problem of disposing / recycling the batteries - a process potentially much more dangerous to the environment than the carbon emissions.
Take a look at some of the electric and hybrid technology currently being developed in Europe and Asia - it’s amazing. Within four to eight years that technology will make the current obsolete so about the time the US automakers start rolling out the big numbers of vehicles based on the current technology no one will want them because the Asian and European manufacturers will be delivering cars based on the new technology.
If the past 20 years of the computer era has taught us anything it should be that profitability depends on continuing innovation. Business and individuals are capable of such innovation - government is not.
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