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Bush Quote on Hybrids

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Mardikes, Apr 25, 2006.

  1. Mardikes

    Mardikes New Member

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    From the NY Times this morning:

    "Responding Monday to a question about how that nation would change over the next decade, Mr. Bush said, "You need to be driving an automobile with hydrogen as the main source of power."

    A hybrid might be an acceptable substitute, he said , if it would "get the first 40 miles without using gasoline. In other words, between the next 10 to 20 years from now we got to get off Middle Eastern oil.""

    We obviously cannot depend upon this man for our energy policy.

    First, hydrogen will not make a dent in the next 10 years.

    Second, he does not understand how hybrids work. Not a clue.

    Third, he does not understand that pretty much all of the hybrid technology that will be developed and refined will be available, if and when hydrogen becomes available as a source of electricity in lieu of the internal cumbustion engine.

    Finally, the question was the next 10 years, not the following decade of 10-20 years out.

    Now, let's think about what a President Gore would have said in response to the same question. Gore probably would understand that in the next 10 years we could decrease our dependence on fossil fuels cars and truck easlily in half. We all know the technology is there. How about $100 billion in tax credits, regardless of AMT so that hybrids are substantially cheaper than conventional vehicles. After 5 years of mass production, they will be so without the need of further credits. Just require that any model so qualifying has to cut fuel consumption in half compared to a comparable weighted vehicle.

    Sorry if this sounds political, it is not meant to be. Having been driving hybrids since 2001, knowing the solution is at hand but ignored, is such a travesty.

    George
     
  2. larkinmj

    larkinmj New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mardikes @ Apr 25 2006, 12:05 PM) [snapback]244870[/snapback]</div>
    This may be the biggest understatement ever on the Priuschat.com website :)
     
  3. kfarad

    kfarad Junior Member

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    yeah... how dare he come to California on earth day and pose as a friend of the evironment?

    IMPEACH BUSH NOW HE MUST GO!
     
  4. eyeguy13

    eyeguy13 Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mardikes @ Apr 25 2006, 11:05 AM) [snapback]244870[/snapback]</div>
    My wife and I have been saying this for years.

    The current (and past) administration should have, years ago, forced Big Auto to dramatically increase the average MPG of the US auto fleet.

    On the EPA website, it still says that cutting back on our oil consumption is in our US National Security Interests.

    I can't stand it anymore...logic and reason do not apply anymore. Greed and corruption rules our politics.

    This thread is perfect for FHOP...how do we move it there...
     
  5. eyeguy13

    eyeguy13 Member

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    I'm no fan of the Bush Administration, but being open minded, I must point out when he actually does something right. In his speech today, as quoted from CNN on-line:

    "Bush also urged Congress to take back some of the billions of dollars in tax incentives it gave energy companies, saying that with record profits, they don’t need the breaks. And he urged lawmakers to expand tax breaks for the purchase of fuel-efficient hybrid automobiles. "

    Not bad, but I'm still a Bush hater...
     
  6. Charles Suitt

    Charles Suitt Senior Member

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    :angry: If I wanted to participate in a POLITICAL forum... I would sign-in to a POLITICAL forum.

    Take it where it belongs and leave PriusChat to Prius discussions.

    MODERATOR... time to delete this thread.
     
  7. MikeSF

    MikeSF Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(beeri @ Apr 25 2006, 09:41 AM) [snapback]244880[/snapback]</div>
    Don't want to get too political, I'll save that rant for some other place :)
     
  8. Maytrix

    Maytrix Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ Apr 25 2006, 01:07 PM) [snapback]244890[/snapback]</div>
    Then don't participate. Ignore this thread and move on.
     
  9. JackDodge

    JackDodge Gold Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mardikes @ Apr 25 2006, 12:05 PM) [snapback]244870[/snapback]</div>
    It's a travesty, yes. The holy grail of business is the elusive hydrogen fuel cell so that everyone can just keep on consuming without worrying about those pesky tree hugger and national security issues. They always gloss over the fact that fuel cells were said to be ten years down the road several years ago and they're still saying that they're ten years down the road today. Wth? Meanwhile, hybrids consume far less gasoline than conventional vehicles but business hates them for some reason or wish that they'd go away :rolleyes: Things that make you go hmmmmm. Kunstler says that fuel cells are a pipe dream; that they'll never become commercial, mass-produced realities.
     
  10. dipper

    dipper Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mardikes @ Apr 25 2006, 09:05 AM) [snapback]244870[/snapback]</div>
    Let me see what Gore would say... "I invented the Hybrid car" :lol:

    But kidding aside. Gore would be in the same boat (or similar boat). If he supported the hybrids cars with tax credits, the Auto Unions will kill him (either literially or politically). Why I say? Because most hybrids are not made by American Unions, that is why. How can a Democrat have support without the Unions behind you?... and the strongest Union at that too.

    At best, he would probably raise the CAFE and call it a success.
     
  11. Mardikes

    Mardikes New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dipper @ Apr 25 2006, 10:47 AM) [snapback]244924[/snapback]</div>
    Well one thing to keep in mind is that all of the auto companies have a book of patents that they basically share. Just like technology companies.

    The reality is that the US automobile companies will need to license technology from Toyota.

    Tax credits could actually be based on whether a company is willing to share their hybrid technology to others. I recall that Toyota has offered the technology to others.

    Kind of like ABS brakes. Someone initially developed it, others license it from them.

    Now for a nice quote on the Gore/Internet thing:

    "On September 1, 2000, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich addressed the American Political Science Association. His remarks were broadcast on C-SPAN:
    GINGRICH: In all fairness, it’s something Gore had worked on a long time. Gore is not the Father of the Internet, but in all fairness, Gore is the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet, and the truth is—and I worked with him starting in 1978 when I got [to Congress], we were both part of a “futures groupâ€â€”the fact is, in the Clinton administration, the world we had talked about in the ’80s began to actually happen."

    George



    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dipper @ Apr 25 2006, 10:47 AM) [snapback]244924[/snapback]</div>
    I do agree with you (I am assuming you are making this point) that a real failure of the Clinton Administration was not to expand the CAFE standards to SUV and light trucks. A real lost opportunity.

    They should have continued the ratcheting up of the MPG goals.

    My greatest fear is that this new technology will go toward muscle hybrids rather than better MPG.

    George
     
  12. larkinmj

    larkinmj New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mardikes @ Apr 25 2006, 02:32 PM) [snapback]244951[/snapback]</div>
    One statistic that I have heard repeated several times (I don't know for certain that it is true, but it sounds reasonable) is that if the CAFE standards were increased by 7 mpg, we could totally eliminate imports of oil from the mideast. As the car we all drive demonstrates, the technology is already here to enable that goal to be attained- the carmakers just wouldn't be able to sell as many SUVs
     
  13. finally_got_one

    finally_got_one New Member

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    Sounds to me like GW was picking things out of mid-air...
    ...such as Hydrogen, 40 miles on electricity only, etc.
    Whoever the president is will not be able to change America's mind about wanting bigger, faster cars and SUVs. American car manufacturers certainly arent helping.
     
  14. Mardikes

    Mardikes New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(finally_got_one @ Apr 25 2006, 11:57 AM) [snapback]244971[/snapback]</div>
    The beauty of the Prius is that one can cut oil consumption in half with no decrease in standard of living.
     
  15. tstreet

    tstreet New Member

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    I will give credit to Bush for wanting to take off the production limitation on hybrid tax credits. However, the credit should be extended to all cars getting over 40 mpg.

    However, Bush either doesn't understand hydrogen or just wants to avoid the problem by talking about hydrogen. Hydrogen will never solve our energy problems and may just make them worse.

    But what about higher CAFE standards and lower speed limits. Bush will never do what needs to be done.
     
  16. dipper

    dipper Senior Member

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    You know American pride. They will rather die than admit that they are wrong. So I don't see them wanting in on Toyota's game... they (mostly GM) will go along (more like stall) with hollow hybrids until FC technologies are ready.

    As for Gore and the Internet. Being a Network Engineer, I am more incline to believe the Engineers that needed better communications were the true people that got the Internet to be what it is today.. that being Bell Labs and the Founders of Cisco (not for what they did in Cisco, but what they did in Stanford).

    And the Hybrid muscle cars, I say there is room for them too. As long as we (regular consumers) are the supporters of hypermile cars, that is where the market will be. So far, it is true.
     
  17. Fibb222

    Fibb222 New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mardikes @ Apr 25 2006, 08:05 AM) [snapback]244870[/snapback]</div>

    I justed registered on this forum and this is my first post. I'd like to make a comment that I was surprised to see, wasn't made by anyone else, yet. First some background - I'm Canadian, but I am pretty well aware of the failings and mistakes of the Bush administration - but if there is one thing I give him credit for it is his recent stance on ending the USA's addiction to oil. Wow! This idea coming repeatedly out of an "oil man's" mouth. I would imagine he would need some serious balls to even hint at this kind of policy change, given his background. [I can't believe I'm coming to his defense on this, but anyway]

    Specifically, why criticize Bush for saying that future hybrids should be able to go 40 miles on electricity alone? That's reasonable for a plug-in hybrid (in 10 years), which is probably what he was alluding to.

    Hydrogen is another thing I wouldn't be so quick to poopoo. It might not make a dent in transportation anytime soon but 100s of scientists and engineers and their associations are busy working on the technology because it does has many advantages - both environmental and geo-political.

    There, I said it.
     
  18. samkusnetz

    samkusnetz New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fibb222 @ Apr 25 2006, 01:02 PM) [snapback]245012[/snapback]</div>
    welcome to priuschat!


    well, i can answer for me and those around me... the thing is that many of us have come to distrust bush on a very low level. his whole presidency has been an endless combination of half-truths, hidden agendas, and outright lies, so much so that no matter what he says, i simply will not believe him. if he says something i agree with, i have come to assume that he either doesn't mean it and is saying it just to look good, or he doesn't actually understand the matter and is inadvertantly saying something which, were he better informed and simply smarter, he would just not say.

    so that why we criticize. because after six years in office, he hasn't actually done one thing i really agree with. and also i just hate being lied to... (like how my toyota dealer lied to me about when i was going to get my car... february indeed! but it's coming this week, so i've cooled off on that. bush gets no such luck.)

    hope this helps you to understand the plight of the american liberal.

    cheers
    sam
     
  19. larkinmj

    larkinmj New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tstreet @ Apr 25 2006, 03:03 PM) [snapback]244976[/snapback]</div>
    I read a good quote today (I forget where), but it was something to the effect that, when the government raises the CAFE standards, Japanese automakers hire 1000 engineers to figure out how to meet them, and American carmakers hire 1000 lawyers to figure out how to circumvent them.
     
  20. dipper

    dipper Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ Apr 25 2006, 01:52 PM) [snapback]245054[/snapback]</div>
    That is not true at all... because Toyota decided 1000 lawyers were cheaper than 1000 engineers too. :rolleyes: