Oliphant and Washington Post ignorantly smear GM and plug-in hybrids 13

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1. 

   Delay And Deny Posted 12:35 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   Exposed!
   
   It's finally sunk into the mainstream consciousness: there are no batteries.
   Repeat: there are no batteries...batteries capable of storing enough charge efficiently and with capacity to power a standard automobile.
   Hydrogen rolls on in countries that aren't being smothered by the shenanigans of Green Businessmen + Complicit Utilities.
   
   "This is the essence of science...you ask an impertinent question and you're on your way to a pertinent answer." -- Fox Mulder, S1E4, "Conduit"

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2. 

   racc Posted 1:30 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   Chill JoeIt is a cartoon.
   I thought Grist was supposed to have a sense of humour. Don't give GM any free publicity. Their greed has lead to untold environmental destruction. They are responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars leaving the US economy a year for oil. On top of that, they aren't even a viable business.

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3. 

   Rowan Posted 1:47 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   Pick your battlesYeah, I don't think this is worth the fuss. If anything, it will just lend support to the stereotype of environmentalists as being humourless, hypersensitive ponces (not that I'm accusing you of such, Joseph). Anyway, I think the cartoon's more about making fun of GM's lack of ingenuity and innovation than it is about disparaging hybrids. There are plenty of more important things to criticise about the media's handling of environmental issues than this.

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4. 

   Craig Allen Posted 1:56 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   Oh come onIt's a cartoon for pities sake.
   Just accept it a a piss-take of GM and have a chuckle.
   I took it more as a goading of GM for not being innovative enough to make a decent electric car than as implying that electric cars can't be made.
   Either way, who cares. If we get too humourless and negative we'll all end up like Jabailo. Imagine how miserable that would be.

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5. 

   biodiversivist Posted 2:06 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   I think GM is a victimof their own marketing. A lot of people actually think the Volt is an electric car.
   
   In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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6. 

   isagreene Posted 2:31 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   Electric? Hydrogen?Yes, yes they both exist. However, both are a time off for the mainstream. My bet is that we can conquer the battery issue long before we make hydrogen fuel cells economical. In the short term, we can create hybrids that use electricity only for most daily driving. That's a pretty big deal and it may keep big oil from totally freaking out and starting another war.
   In fact, if you read the other grist stories, you learned that China released an electric hybrid recently. GM loses again.
   Man, they're really gonna need that jabailout now...

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7. 

   Delay And Deny Posted 2:44 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   I can see why you guys are worried...
   
   You Gristoids should take this cartoon seriously, because it's the first time that I've seen a MSM outlet -- and an East Coast Lib one at that -- challenge one of the tenets of Green Ideology if even in a humorous way!
   Maybe Questioning is spreading?  Maybe people are starting to ask the questions that some of us have been for the past two years or longer!
   Maybe people are starting to use their brains and question instead of just reiterating Gore and IPCC!!!
   This cartoon is a real breakthrough, it's the kind of subtle hint that one might have seen near the end of the Cold War say, in an East German newspaper in 1989, that the Wall of Green is about to fall, and be replaced with rational science and free questioning!
   
   "This is the essence of science...you ask an impertinent question and you're on your way to a pertinent answer." -- Fox Mulder, S1E4, "Conduit"

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8. 

   Colin Wright Posted 3:56 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   What about bumper cars?Sometimes cartons can help us think out of the box. Say, maybe we don't need to have the vehicle actually carry the power source. Oh wait, we already have that ... the electric train.
   But maybe some California suburb is already planning an overhead electric wire system, so that any suburbanite can jump out of his/her split-level bungaloo, hook up their very own personal transportation pod, and go off trying to bump as many other pods as possible on their way to the office?

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9. 

   Bob Wallace Posted 4:17 pm
   15 Dec 2008

   Electric?"My bet is that we can conquer the battery issue long before we make hydrogen fuel cells economical."
   Seems like you're winning your bet.
   Nissan has announced that they will start mass production of an all-electric with a 100 mile range in 2010.

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10. 

    Pangolin Posted 7:37 pm
    15 Dec 2008

    No hydrogen needed. I'll just pop on down to the hydrogen station then for a little fill-er-up.
    Too freaking bad for me the nearest hydrogen station is 80+ miles away at Arnie's house and I couldn't buy the tanks or the fuel cell for a HEV for the cost of my current used car.
    I could however trade in my Matrix for a Prius for about $6K more; that has batteries. Or buy a GEM neighborhood electric vehicle for the same price.
    If I'm really smart I'll sell the car I have. Hire a cab for rainy days and spend $2K for an electric assisted cargo bike. That way I ditch the monthly insurance bill, gas, repairs and I don't have the temptation of taking the car on tough days. Plus I'll save that $2k in the first year easy.
    Of course, I've already got the cargo bike but I'm still lusting over an electric wheel. Maybe Santa can help out.
    
    Put the Carbon Back

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11. 

    Easterbunny Posted 11:33 pm
    15 Dec 2008

    Just laughOh, come now Joe - you're taking it way too seriously. It's a very funny cartoon. We need to be able to laugh, even if we despair the state of the auto industry.

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12. 

    amazingdrx Posted 12:18 am
    16 Dec 2008

    BullshitIt's not funny.  It's tragic.
    The fact that main stream media still doesn't understand how plugin hybrids work.  Even though this very paper has reporters that have tried to explain how this design works.
    It's such a simple idea to conmprehend.
    The average trip in a car is 23 miles between charging opportunities, home, work, school plugin for a few hours.  Therefore a 40 mile battery range will cover most miles driven.
    On longer trips the backup generator will kick in, giving the same utility and ease of refueling, right at any gas pump, as a conventional car.
    There is a chinese plugin hybrid model suitable for import right now that would cost $22k if only government restrictions were lifted.
    Plugin hybrids mass produced by auto makers everywhere could power a drop in oil demand and that could stabilize the global economy, not something to laugh about.  Think starvation in developing nations, that's not comedy.
    That's just plain sick humor.
    
    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

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13. 

    liberalnun Posted 3:17 am
    16 Dec 2008

    Well...I LOL'ed. Like a lot of the commenters above, I interpreted it as a critique of GM's ingenuity rather than a critique of plug-in hybrids.

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