Re-Volt!

I only just now learned about the existence of my dream car so I have to talk about it. Also, I must formally announce that I no longer want a Toyota Prius hybrid. That stuff is OLD news. And hydrogen fuel cells? Bleh.

I am super excited about the HPEV technology - the Plug-In Hybrid. So now I've got my eye on the Chevy Volt, slated to come out in 2010. I think I can stretch my Altima until then, so long as GM doesn't pull any fast ones and push it off indefinitely, and that government incentives make it affordable. The HPEV plugs into a regular wall outlet and gives 40 miles for a charge, plenty for most commutes, and then has a back-up hybrid gas engine for any further than that. So all told you get over 100 miles per gallon! I mean, it's like science fiction! Except it's science non-fiction because it actually exists right now. I just learned about it from the kick-butt movie "Who Killed the Electric Car", which I totally recommend (warning, you will probably get extremely p.o.'d watching this movie).

So I have a prediction that this is the future -- that the "gas" we put in these things will be from homegrown cellulosic ethanol (not corn. Corn = bad ethanol source) And that we will thus release ourselves from this oil debacle, except that we'll still want plastics, but that's not nearly as much consumption. And the power that we get coming off the grid will become cleaner and cleaner -- solar, wind, solar and hopefully solar will be replacing the coal. Bye carbon emissions, bye global warming. Our nation will become prosperous again because all of our energy will come from internally, no more importing, no more problems with the dollar sinking. We'll use our wealth to spread the technology across the globe and restore all the good will that our previous administration destroyed.

I feel optimistic today.