Who gets to speak. That's the issue you've put your finger on, tpmgary. And that same issue is at the heart of many of our problems today. How is it that corporate America has more rights than the actual citizens?

Who could possibly have seen this coming....besides Jimmy Carter that is?

Enjoy.

This topic is especially relevant now that the Dems have introduced the draft of their energy and climate change bill. A provision would preserve California's power to set new standards on vehicle emissions.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090331/BUSINESS01/90331041/Dems++bill+mirrors+California+emission+standards

Politicians and the corporate interests they represent are already out in full force. James Inhofe and the usual suspects are out denying the effects of climate change.

Oil, coal, and automotive lobbies are generating a storm of disinformation.

Who will win this time?

My tax guy was saying, apropos GM, that the poor quality of the 70s cars sent him to Japanese cars, and he has never come back. I know lots like him.

GM and Ford improved their cars a lot starting in the 80s, but the 70s crap, that rusted out in five years, got crap mileage, and handled like old trucks, is a legacy they seem to have not been able to make us forget. I did OK with GM products after 1990, and my Ford Focus is fine. But they should have been scared after 1973, and weren't.

I took my first ride in a golf cart in 1966

Auto-workers have been so poorly representated. The UAW shares equal blame with the Corporate Execs in Detroit for the "hybrid compromise" and the endless rollout of bigger and bigger vehicles to jam through the "light truck" loophole.

Your point about the ruling classes is well taken, but in the context of Detroit, there's plenty of blame to go around.

For greater context, here's an electric car timeline that reaches back two centuries:

1832
Scottish inventor invents the first crude electric carriage powered by non-rechargeable primary cells.

1835
American Thomas Davenport is credited with building the first practical electric vehicle

1859
French physicist Gaston Planté invents the rechargeable lead-acid storage battery. In 1881, his countryman Camille Faure will improve the storage battery's ability to supply current and invent the basic lead-acid battery used in automobiles.

1891
William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa builds the first successful electric automobile in the United States.

1893
A handful of different makes and models of electric cars are exhibited in Chicago.

1897
The first electric taxis hit the streets of New York City early in the year. The Pope Manufacturing Company of Connecticut becomes the first large-scale American electric automobile manufacturer.

1899
Believing that electricity will run autos in the future, Thomas Alva Edison begins his mission to create a long-lasting, powerful battery for commercial automobiles.

1900
The electric automobile is in its heyday. Of the 4,192 cars produced in the United States 28 percent are powered by electricity, and electric autos represent about one-third of all cars found on the roads of New York City, Boston, and Chicago.

1908
Henry Ford introduces the mass-produced and gasoline-powered Model T, which will have a profound effect on the U.S. automobile market.

1912
Charles Kettering invents the first practical electric automobile starter. Kettering's invention makes gasoline-powered autos more alluring to consumers by eliminating the unwieldy hand crank starter and ultimately helps pave the way for the electric car's demise.

1920
During the 1920s the electric car ceases to be a viable commercial product. The electric car's downfall is attributable to a number of factors, including the desire for longer distance vehicles, their lack of horsepower, and the ready availability of gasoline.

1966
Congress introduces the earliest bills recommending use of electric vehicles as a means of reducing air pollution. A Gallup poll indicates that 33 million Americans are interested in electric vehicles.

1970s
Concerns about the soaring price of oil -- peaking with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 -- and a growing environmental movement result in renewed interests in electric cars from both consumers and producers.

1972
Victor Wouk, the "Godfather of the Hybrid," builds the first full-powered, full-size hybrid vehicle out of a 1972 Buick Skylark provided by General Motors (G.M.) for the 1970 Federal Clean Car Incentive Program. The Environmental Protection Association later kills the program in 1976.

1974
Vanguard-Sebring's CitiCar makes its debut at the Electric Vehicle Symposium in Washington, D.C. The CitiCar has a top speed of over 30 mph and a reliable warm-weather range of 40 miles. By 1975 the company is the sixth largest automaker in the U.S. but is dissolved only a few years later.

1975
The U.S. Postal Service purchases 350 electric delivery jeeps from AM General, a division of AMC, to be used in a test program.

1976
Congress passes the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act. The law is intended to spur the development of new technologies including improved batteries, motors, and other hybrid-electric components.

1988
Roger Smith, CEO of G.M. , agrees to fund research efforts to build a practical consumer electric car. G.M. teams up with California's AeroVironment to design what would become the EV1, which one employee called "the world's most efficient production vehicle." Some electric vehicle enthusiasts have speculated that the EV1 was never undertaken as a serious commercial venture by the large automaker.

1990
California passes its Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate, which requires two percent of the state's vehicles to have no emissions by 1998 and 10 percent by 2003. The law is repeatedly weakened over the next decade to reduce the number of pure ZEVs it requires.

1997
Toyota unveils the Prius -- the world's first commercially mass-produced and marketed hybrid car -- in Japan. Nearly 18,000 units are sold during the first production year.

1997 - 2000
A few thousand all-electric cars (such as Honda's EV Plus, G.M.'s EV1, Ford's Ranger pickup EV, Nissan's Altra EV, Chevy's S-10 EV, and Toyota's RAV4 EV) are produced by big car manufacturers, but most of them are available for lease only. All of the major automakers' advanced all-electric production programs will be discontinued by the early 2000s.

2002
G.M. and DaimlerChrysler sue the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to repeal the ZEV mandate first passed in 1990. The Bush Administration joins that suit.

2003
G.M. announces that it will not renew leases on its EV1 cars saying it can no longer supply parts to repair the vehicles and that it plans to reclaim the cars by the end of 2004.

I'll skip to 2009--Tesla unveils world’s first mass-produced, highway-capable electric vehicle.

It is of course indicative, but as Doomer says it's also not news anymore.

The good news about electric cars is really that the current improvements will make hybrids with larger battery packs practical. I still would like to be able to pour some home-brewed alcohol in the tank, collected from my Mr. Fuel® trash digester and fermentation cell.*

*Not available at this time, but one can hope.