I am now a proud member of a non profit organization that is actively involved in lobbying congress to pass legislation in favor of Hybrid Vehicles by providing more incentives for people to purchase Hybrids. Currently, there are 550,000 hybrid vehicles on the road in the United States right now, with 220,000 of those sold this year alone!! Hybrid vehicles offer a way for the average American to reduce our dependance on foreign oil while supporting new technology for alternative energy.
I have recently just wrote this letter to my senators as well as President Bush himself:
I am now a hybrid vehicle owner at 23 years old. I consider myself to be a global warming activist. There is an obvious reason to offer better solutions to help alleviate our reliance on foreign oil. To be honest, I find it irresponsible of our government to allow the recall and destruction of perfectly working, 100 percent electric vehicles designed by GM, Ford, and Toyota in the 1990's. These were vehicles that produced ZERO emissions and were being driven around parts of California. The big question is: What happened to the electric vehicle?
While I think hybrid cars are fine and dandy, I would love to purchase a zero emissions vehicle that I could drive to work everyday without ever having to fill up with gas. The amount of money being poured into research and development for hydrogen based vehicles should be going into improving the electric vehicle instead. But instead, the future will be based on extracting hydrogen from a fossil fuel (coal), the most abundant natural resource the United States owns. This seems like a good move, considering the fact that oil may become a scarce commodity considering how the oil in the Middle East is an insecure reliability at the current moment.
The American people are fed up with the war in Iraq; this is demonstrated in the recent democratic takeover of congress. Real changes need to occur, and the very least that congress can do at the moment is to support the 5 step action plan cited below. As a concerned American, I need to see positive changes take effect in order for me to feel proud of the country I live in. I am sick of all the lies and false promises, I want action taken now. There is absolutely no reason why the United States can not take the lead in curbing emissions by utilizing existing technology.
The Congress and the White House should be doing more to encourage hybrid vehicle purchases and production. California has been the leader in introducing legislation to help curb greenhouse gas emissions and the federal government should follow California's pursuit. To that end, I encourage you to endorse and act on the following five-step plan:
1. Broaden the federal tax credit for hybrid vehicle purchases so that more vehicle types are eligible for the credit faster and so that popular hybrid credits do not 'fade out' so quickly.
2. Create a new and additional tax incentive that provides further assistance to individuals who convert existing hybrids into plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) in order to further increase fuel efficiency and decrease oil consumption and pollution output.
3. Provide tax and other incentives to businesses that help employees to buy hybrids, particularly when such inducements are tied to corporate strategies to mitigate global warming pollution.
4. Provide U.S. automakers that commit to more hybrid vehicle research and production with major encouragement to do so, including aid with health care and other steep costs that make it tougher for American car companies to be competitive in today's global marketplace.
5. Set a target of switching over federal vehicle fleet purchases to hybrids of 10 percent for 2007, 20 percent for 2008 and 30 percent for 2009.
The benefits for Americans of promoting greater fuel efficiency through more hybrid auto purchases are clear: We can reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil, making us more secure; we can lower the carbon emissions into the atmosphere that contribute to global warming; and we can put America's technology community to work on these important problems, creating jobs, ensuring that the U.S. leads in the development and sale of new technologies.
We need action now from Washington to get more hybrids on the road as soon as possible.
Please take steps now as my elected official to address this problem. I look forward to hearing what it is that you intend to do and when. Thank you for your time in this matter.
John Tarantino
The Environmental Blog now has an art gallery in downtown Eugene, Oregon. The gallery will host eco-art, art that is created with sustainability, or art that is environmentally themed. If you are an artist or photographer and are interested in showing off your work in Eugene's monthly art walk, please email:
