Posted on 01/13/2011 11:07:47 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Accolades keep pouring in for the Chevy Volt, the electric car darling of the 2011 Detroit auto show, including the show's North American Car of the Year award this week from a jury of swooning auto journalists. In his corny acceptance speech, General Motors vice-chairman Tom Stephens' thanked "all of the jurors who Volted, or voted, for the Chevrolet Volt," a plug-in electric hybrid with gas backup. Its all-electric rival, the Nissan Leaf, was a runner-up.
But public acceptance, pricier sticker numbers, charging challenges, and a willingness to break old driving habits (goodbye to pedal to the metal) will determine whether the Volt and its brethren actually electrify (sorry, couldn't resist) the auto marketplace -- and ultimately improve the environment -- or fall short of current industry and media hype.
The image of these electric vehicles has gone from geeky to sexy with surprising speed, as a recent Atlantic Wire column, "Are American Cars Cool Again?," pointed out. They are on the cutting edge of several promising new clean car and truck technologies with the potential to substantially reduce oil consumption, drive down air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and help curb climate change in the decades to come. But first Americans have to start buying them and successors to come, and the public and private sector need to buy in as well.
A new study, released Tuesday by the non-partisan Pew Center on Global Climate Change, provides a roadmap for lowering overall transportation emissions in the decades ahead....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
the idea behind the Volt
is to reduce gasoline use,
who cares about carbon dioxide?
Not the GLOBAL WARMING CRAP AGAIN! We’ve been in the 20’s for 2 months now & next week we have two days that will be high of 16 and low of 2!!!
Not the GLOBAL WARMING CRAP AGAIN! We’ve been in the 20’s for 2 months now & next week we have two days that will be high of 16 and low of 2!!!
‘Where does she think electricity comes from? Unicorn farts?’
Well...if the environuts actually got a brain somewhere and boosted the use of nuclear power, that would be a realistic way to reduce CO2 emissions. Granted, that looks quite unlikely at the moment.
‘And how does one go about reducing something that doesn’t exist?’
CO2 exists, and if nothing else ocean acidification is a real effect. Personally I think manmade global warming is a minor effect, and probably on hold for 20-30 years due to the current solar Grand Minimum. Regardless, there’s nothing wrong with letting natural market forces, as opposed to heavy-handed government subsidies (sigh), move things towards cleaner and more efficient technologies.
What I’d like to see is better analysis of the overall environmental impact of cars like the Volt. I recall a study that said that you could buy a Hummer and drive it for about 100K miles before reaching the total equivalent environmental impact of a new Prius hybrid, mainly due to battery manufacture.
There is also of course the “death factor” of driving a small car on roads alongside plenty of larger vehicles. Natural selection may work against the environuts to some extent...
>> Not the GLOBAL WARMING CRAP AGAIN! We’ve been in the 20’s for 2 months now
While you may be longing for normalcy and peace, the Left will not relent in its pursuit of destroying our Liberties.
I estimate it will take 10 to 15 years to quell the lunacy.
IOW, pie in the sky. Power from regenerative braking is minimal. A 50 mpg conventional car will pretty flimsy. Mileage like that used to be possible before ethanol and safety mandates. They appeal to "market pressures" is a joke, they want to destroy the market.
I tend to agree although ocean pH varies widely and the fauna and flora adapt. The real warming from manmade CO2 increases is small and mostly beneficial. Like you said, the low solar activity puts us at risk of cooling right now.
But it sounds good. That is all that matters to Moonbats.
“Where does she think electricity comes from? Unicorn farts? And how does one go about reducing something that doesn’t exist?”
Couldn’t have said it any better.
These eco-nuts have taken their persistent looniness to new heights. I just can’t wait to I have the chance to sneer at some doofuses driving a Volt (Dolt). The only globull warming is the slight warming caused by the singular brain cell in their cranium that functions intermittently.
The moonbats push the chevy dolt on this country.
Meanwhile, under the surface they are hamstringing nuclear, natural gas and coal industries.
All in the name of a hoax.
Hope someday our country gets back in the hands of grownups with real world experience.
The Chevy volt is actually coal-powered.
Meanwhile our tax monies to bolster solar energy companies has failed, 2 down the tubes leaving many without jobs and us taxpayers footing the bill on technology that has not been perfected in 50 years but has been promoted by the genius politicians for political gain and personal fortune.
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