(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
I'm surprised this was published in the New York Times.No suprise that the author of this piece, Jamie Kitman, a writer for Automobile magazine, found his way into the NY Times.
Kittman is a genuine car guy from the Left. He built his NY Times/leftist credentials with an article published in Nation, The Secret History of Lead, a conspiracy-expose on the corrupt 1920s introduction of lead into gasoline by the evil "cabal" of GM, Dupont and Standard Oil with government complicity. Nation touts the article as evidence of the need for strict government regulation of industry.
While Kitman finds corruption in the industry and its government partners, Nation's solution, more regulation becomes absurd. The prime missing ingredient to this story is competition, be it ideas, technologies or solutions. GM's hold on the automobile market was enshrined by FDR's New Deal, which set labor, material and sales prices, thus killing competition. Dupont and Std. Oil and its descendants, also benefited from FDR's folly, and using that leverage they were assured that no market alternatives to the lead-additive would arise. Kitman's article is a good one, but it misses this key point.
When government controls business, business will end up controling government.
As for Kitman's take on Hybrids, I agree with him. The good old internal combustion engine is far from over.