So, would you be willing to forego all the government meddling and incentives for YOUR favorite programs in exchange for the others doing the same? Or do you just want to make an argument that this is somehow “fair” because you believe that the oil companies have been propped up by uncle sugar for years, so we should do the same for electrics? BTW, if you want to put military expenditures in the credit column for oil companies, think again. It’s a consumer bailout, not a corporate subsidy.

That is all.

You sure?

Currently hydrogen is an energy transport, not a source of energy: we manufacture hydrogen either from electricity (50% coal) or from natural gas.

There sure ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, and change to hydrogen sure ain’t much of a change at all.

We’ll take a fossil fuel such as gasoline, that is still relatively cheap and easy and replace it with….

…

Plug in, slow, 20 minutes of driving – 20 hours to charge, expensive cars. That derive their fuel from your home’s power, which is derived from…

…coal…another fossil fuel, only it costs more per mile for electricity than it does gas.

This isn’t moving forwards, this is moving backwards. Anyone see the Tesla on Top Gear? It drove for 20 minutes. The Honda Clarity, powered by hydrogen, is a move forward.

Not these hippie mobiles.

Plus they are getting huge subsidies to boot.

Am I missing something here?

Like this isn’t happening with oil? You think Exxon/Mobil’s $50B profit wasn’t sucked straight out of Americans’ pockets with full and complicit market “distortion” by 50 years of government tax and energy policy? That’s the bailout of the century, and it goes on.

I’ve got no problem discussing which distortions / subsidies one favors, but let’s not pretend that any horse in this race isn’t getting one hell of a push….

At least it’s going to something, ANYTHING, that might have a measurable ROI.

(Jollies aside – there’s no shortages of those for Corporations on the taxpayer take).

Goal: fuel independence by 1990.

You or your parents’ tax money was spent alright: vendors, politicians, and Synthetic Fuels Corporation staff all got their jollies.

But the oil from coal President Carter wanted to subsidize was too expensive for real life, too expensive to compete with good, abundant petroleum.

Anyone wanna bet on what energy will fuel the cars of 2020 after the Obama subsidy has been spent and the beneficiaries of the subsidy have gotten their jollies?

Watching all that money swirl around sure is stimulating!