oil

With Washington’s government facing a $3.2 billion budget deficit, we need to cut expenses now. One smart place to start is with a two- to three-year moratorium on buying new state fleet vehicles and to begin the transition from oil to electricity in transportation.

Virtually every major automaker will sell plug-in hybrid or all-electric vehicles starting in 2010-12. General Motors is advertising the plug-in Chevy Volt for 2010. Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes will have plug-in cars on the road within three years. Last month Warren Buffett bought a major stake in BYD, a Chinese company that will have an electric-powered five-passenger car for sale this month.

Instead of buying state vehicles that will be consuming gasoline for the next decade or two, the governor should order an immediate moratorium on buying new gasoline-powered cars for the state fleet and make firm plans for the purchase of the coming plug-in cars that use little or no gasoline.

This article, published by The Seattle Times, mentions the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute: At a Cascadia Center conference last week on the future of transportation titled “Beyond Oil,” the star was the electric car. The rest of the article can be found here.

With oil prices doubling in a year and hitting record highs, airlines are cutting flights, charging extra for everything they can think of, or just going out of business. Earlier this year travelers on Aloha and ATA were left wondering how the airline they took while on their vacation could go bankrupt so quickly – before many could catch their Read More ›

As the military battle for Iraq comes to an end, a new battle is beginning – how to rebuild Iraq. On one side are those who believe that, by establishing the proper institutions and rules, the Iraqis will be able to rather quickly rebuild their own economy without placing a burden on U.S. taxpayers. The other side, primarily led by Read More ›