"Bell the Hybrid" S. 841 and H.R. 734

Hi folks,

Now there is a Senate bill, S. 841, to match the House bill, H.R. 734, the two parts needed to get a law passed. Furthermore, Ray LaHood, a co-sponsor of the original "Bell the Hybrid," runs the Department of Transportation, which oversees the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the keepers of accident data.

Bob Wilson

The bill has been sent to committee: If you have one of the following senators who are on the committee, let 'em know what you think. (MA people take note: Kerry is the sponsor!)

Democrats Republicans

Chairman John D. Rockefeller, IV (WV)
Daniel K. Inouye (HI)
John F. Kerry (MA)
Byron L. Dorgan (ND)
Barbara Boxer (CA)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Maria Cantwell (WA)
Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ)
Mark Pryor (AR)
Claire McCaskill (MO)
Amy Klobuchar (MN)
Tom Udall (NM)
Mark Warner (VA)
Mark Begich (AK)
Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
Olympia J. Snowe (ME)
John Ensign (NV)
Jim DeMint (SC)
John Thune (SD)
Roger Wicker (MS)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
David Vitter (LA)
Sam Brownback (KS)
Mel Martinez (FL)
Mike Johanns (NE)

Just because it's sent to committee doesn't mean the committee are going to do anything with it, and even if it's reported out of committee doesn't mean anything will be happening on the floor. They've generally got a lot of work to get through.

I'm disappointed that the House Agriculture Committee's H.R. 977, "Derivatives Markets Transparency and Accountability Act of 2009", hasn't seen any movement since being reported out of the Agriculture Committee. It looks like Financial Services is sitting on it. They're a little busy with other immediate matters, but I'd still like futures market price speculation to be stamped out (the real reason for food and gasoline inflation).

H.R. 734 has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and there's been no work done on it since it was nominally introduced in the House on 28 January. This may well explain why a bill has now been introduced in the Senate. It's been referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but again they're quite busy: this bill appears 59th in a search on Thomas.loc.gov (by increasing bill number, House bills appearing first, then concurrent resolutions, then Senate resolutions).

Incidentally the bill above it is S. 835, "A bill to require automobile manufacturers to ensure that not less than 80 percent of the automobiles manufactured or sold in the United States by each such manufacturer to operate on fuel mixtures containing 85 percent ethanol, 85 percent methanol, or biodiesel." Boy, they're a bit out of touch; I thought everyone knew by now that we use much more fossil fuel to produce the plant feedstock to produce 'biofuel' than the energy provided by the fuel itself? Not to mention the impact on growing space for other useful plants, like say food.

UK online IT rag, The Register, has picked up on this. Story here, comments here.

So far the comments are mostly favourable; I'd add Bob's statistics but don't want to go through the onerous registration process.

Here is how I want mine to sound!

I've always liked the Jetson's flying car sound effects. If you *really* want to confuse folks, make your Prius sound like a 6.1 litre Dodge Challenger

[ame=http://videos.streetfire.net/video/16885-2008-Dodge-SRT8_176032.htm]#16885 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 Dyno- Video[/ame]

This sounds *very* good if your computer speakers have a good subwoofer.

Just have the part where the 6.1 litre V8 is kicked in the guts, folks in the parking lot will jump in fear but all they will see is your Prius gliding by

Silly.

There's still plenty of tire noise when my car operates on battery only. If I can hear that while operating the vehicle (and I'm not blind), then I'd think a deaf pedestrian would hear it just fine.

I think you might want to restate your opinion.

Are you sure about that?

I agree with what you are trying to say, I think.

What's funny is that it took BOTH of the subsequent messages to finally make me see the mistake. And I'm not even deaf!

I can't hear what he is seeing!

What about people who are deaf and blind?

You mean the guy driving the Buick in front of me, 15 MPH under the limit with his left turn signal on?

Apparently we elect them to Congress.

Bob Wilson

I was browsing Kos earlier and noticed that there had been a hearing today titled "Auto Safety: Current Mandates and Emerging Issues", held by a Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. While the chair did reference hybrids, none of the other witnesses said anything about them (according to their submitted documents).

"I’d like to know what steps NHTSA is taking to meet the unique challenges of safety for hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles, which are quickly becoming a significant segment of cars driven by Americans. If we are going to promote these vehicles to American consumers in our efforts to further energy independence and combat global climate change, we have to also assure Americans that they are as safe as conventional vehicles in order to foster their long-term commercial viability."

Thanks!

I missed that one coming up but now see what I have to do to not be surprised again.

Having read the transcripts, the only witness who mentioned the "Bell the Hybrid" nonsense was:

Robert Strassburger, Vice President, Vehicle Safety & Harmonization, The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. His testimony had one small paragraph about their effort last year at the NHTSA hearing.

The National Federation of the Blind are holding their next convention in Detroit ... GM has committed to putting noise makers on the Volt ... Lotus engineering also hangs in that area too. Folks, I think we have a smoking gun.

Bob Wilson