Treason! Outrage! New York Times Kills The Electric Car

Lynn E., your point was made and understood, but your contention that government should fund exploration into future sources of energy is detached from reality. Blame our national economic policy for the stunting of oil exploration on public lands in America. Oil exploration continues on a wide scale all over the globe, except in America. That's why we lost six rigs out of the Gulf. They're now in different places all over the globe, still drilling for oil and making money. Who needs America when there are tons of unexplored areas all over the globe? There's money to be made there. Not here. America will pay to import it, instead. Makes sense only to the environmentalists and green-weenies. Not so much to the majority of Americans. To wit, the sales of the Volt and the Leaf. Epic fail! There's no money to be made in alternate energy sources. If there is a market for alternate sources of energy in the real world, it will come. Right now it is neither practical nor desirable to switch our oil-based global economy to other sources. And it won't be for hundreds of years yet, or until the world runs out of oil, whichever comes first. For industry to develop alternate sources of energy there has to be a profit in it. There isn't. That's why you want we, the people, to fund these idealistic projects like the Volt and Solyndra. The Prius was an industry-driven project and seems to have done real well. The others, not so much. The others were a waste of money and a foregone conclusion at the onset. You can't beat oil. What you can do instead is develop it further until all its sources are depleted. Then, alternate sources of energy on the same scale as oil is now, make sense. Not before. The majority of people on the planet do not share the ideals of visionaries like yourself. That could be because they have to live their daily lives in the real world, a world that is often a nightmare of epic energy-cost proportions, like $5/gallon gasoline. All that you can hope and wish for will come, in due time. But not for decades yet. Not in your lifetime. And it will be funded by industry, when it comes, not by government. And industry will make a handsome profit on it, just like the oil industry is making handsome profits now. Sun, wind, wave and nuclear simply cannot come close to the efficiency of oil, coal and natgas. If you are concerned about wars, we'll be in yet another one real soon, and within 20-30 years in yet another one. Look back into history for the interval between conflicts. It all boils down to national interests and national priorities. Right now it is oil. Viet Nam wasn't about oil, neither was Korea, and certainly not WWII or WWI. The availability of oil is existential to the planet. Other sources of energy, not at all.

@highdesertcat If I'm not mistaken Nissan has sold more Leaf EVs in their first 12 months than Toyota sold Prius hybrids in their first 12 months. -- We lost drilling rigs in deep water because the companies doing the drilling had no effective way to deal with spills. They were forced to stop operation until they came up with adequate plans and equipment. During that period shallow water drilling continued as usual. -- "Right now it is neither practical nor desirable to switch our oil-based global economy to other sources. And it won’t be for hundreds of years yet, or until the world runs out of oil, whichever comes first." Were I a betting man I'd put some very heavy money on you being wrong on that one. That's because I'm paying attention to what is happening around the world and it's really clear that wind and solar are on their way to becoming major industries in the very near future.... ;o)

@highdesertcat Bob Wallace, my brothers sold Prius out of their Toyota dealerships on the West Coast and I know they sold a bunch of them. As far as I know, those dealerships still sell a lot of Prii after my brothers sold their ownership in them. One of my brothers owns a Leaf he bought in California and hauled it on a flatbed behind his F150 to Manhattan, NY, where he now lives. He tells me that they drive their Camry and their F150 a whole lot more than the Leaf for a variety of reasons, range anxiety being one of them, and a 120v outlet in the parking garage being another one. I don't know the exact numbers of Leaf vs Prii sold but that brings us back to that argument about GM's version of the number of Volts sold vs the number of Prii sold in the first year. In the case of Leaf vs Prius we can at least exclude the US of A, since both were introduced in Japan first. If your vision of the alternative sources of energy is correct, it must have eluded the major speculators in industry who normally finance these future trends. It may work in developing countries that do not have an existing industrial base as yet and may wish to build an infrastructure based on new tech, like solar, wind, wave or nuclear. But in the US? Nah, not a chance. At least not for the foreseeable future. And that High Speed Rail for California? Nah, not a chance, unless Obama and the 'crats finance it for Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. Little chance there as well.