A new N.Y. Times/CBS poll on global warming issues shows several interesting numbers, but none so overwhelming as the public support for forcing an increase in fuel efficient cars (92 percent to 6 percent). We here are less interested in forcing the woebegone auto industry to produce such cars as enabling them to do so by using the power of government’s regular large purchases of vehicles to provide a sure market and spur large scale production. Almost nothing would work as fast as plug-in hybrid cars (“PHEVs”) to lower America’s dependence on overseas oil, lower air pollution (regardless of your take on global warming) and save money in the long term. To get costs down, Detroit needs large scale purchases.
So why is the federal government moving so slow?
Discovery’s Cascadia Center holds a national conference at the Microsoft Headquarters Conference Center in Redmond, Washington on May 7.