If you watched to the State of the Union address on Tuesday, I'm sure you noted President Bush's comment about U.S. oil addiction. Here's what UCS Clean Vehicles program director Jason Mark had to say about it:
The president has admitted we’re addicted to oil. There’s no reason to drag that addiction out twenty years. We could save more than 75 percent of Middle East oil imports within ten years by increasing the fuel economy of our cars and trucks to 40 miles per gallon. The investments in renewable fuel technologies the president proposed will pay important dividends down the road. But you can’t transform transportation by research alone. We need aggressive policies now to wean ourselves off oil. Our latest analysis shows that the United States is sending $500,000 overseas every minute to import oil. Solutions are available now to relieve Americans' pain at the pump. It’s time to get serious about the dismal gas mileage of our vehicles today while we work on the renewable fuels of tomorrow.
I was personally surprised that the President only mentioned batteries when brushing across hybrid technologies in his address. He could have touted how his own EPA has been working hard at finding new, innovative strategies to build advanced vehicles, and mentioned their hydraulic hybrid concept. This is yet another example that whether it is hybrid or conventional technologies, engineers in government and industry are continuing to stockpile a suite of technological solutions that can help us kick the oil habit in the near term, but it takes real leadership in government and industry to actually implement those solutions on a scale that is actually going to do us some good.
Posted by: ScottN
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