April 05, 2009 10:18 PM UTC

Obama saving the auto industry? Sorry George Will

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• by: wade norris

With the economic troubles facing almost every sector of our economy, our government has had to prop the Automotive industry. Here’s George Will attacking that plan in  his column

which states that our government is foolishly trying to make people ‘want’ hybrids by injecting government into free market territory:

The two best-selling vehicles in America this year are large pickup trucks (Ford F-Series and Chevy Silverado). In February, Toyota sold 13,600 Tundra and Tacoma pickups and 7,232 Priuses. It sells the Prius at a loss, which it can afford to do because it makes pots of money selling pickups. Has the Car Designer in Chief, a.k.a. the president, considered the possibility that what he calls “the cars of tomorrow” will forever be that?

Excuse me?  

This argument is a red herring. The fact is that the car industry could continue selling Tundras, F-150s, and Silverados at the same pace that they are now, only with Electric engines. We could have an entirely electric fleet, and these cars could probably go faster and be stronger than the combustion engines we have now.

The government and the public has been told three things – 1) that laissez-faire was the best policy and 2) stay out of industry decisions and 3) let the market decide. But the fact is, the reason we don’t have the electric trucks and cars we could have, is because of the stranglehold the oil companies have had over our markets, lobbying to block any and every attempt to raise CAFE standards as well as any move toward zero emission vehicles. No, Mr. Will, the industry has proven that unless our Government directly interferes and demands changes in the way our vehicles are made, then the market will continue to be manipulated and ‘dumbed down’ to continue the profitable trade in oil.

We must have the government intercede to actually ‘free’ the free market.

I was originally all in favor of supporting GM’s Volt project as a way to ‘Buy American’ and still am to some point.

In the back of my mind I kept thinking about ‘who killed the electric car’ and why that technology, which GM had created a decade ago, is not part of their solution now.

Ok, so I am no engineer, maybe there were lots of flaws with that car.

But when I see that John Wayland can build a record breaking electric muscle car in his own garage, then I get upset that we can’t invest in that technology…

video of the 0-60 in 3 seconds electric car below…Watch this video, and consider that every single muscle car that Vin Diesel will drive in ‘The Fast and The Furiest’ would get their doors blown off by a 1972 Electric Datsun.

Not only that, but the fastest motorcycle record was made here in Colorado at Bandimere speedway with the Electric Motorcycle known as the Killacylce.

As of now, the only well known commercially sold electric car is the TESLA, but it is still fairly cost prohibitive for an average consumer.

But if Tesla and these independent inventors can build totally electric vehicles that can crush any combustion engine on the race track, shouldn’t we invest our TAX dollars in their technology?

We can’t afford to wait, for their sake, no matter what mr. Will says.