AMERICAN ISSUES PROJECT

The Obama Administration has made the green movement a high priority, and with a Democrat Congress, the money is flowing to green initiatives. Recently, the government gave over half a billion dollars to a small California-based car company backed by former vice president Al Gore. The company, Fisker Automotive Inc., received $529 million to build a hybrid sports car in Finland.

That's right. The United States government, not content with owning General Motors, is now invested in car production in Finland.

It also loaned $465 million to Telsa Motors, Inc. They make all electric cars, including the very cool Tesla Roadster. This is a powerful piece of machinery. It will go 244 miles on a single charge, will accelerate from 0-60 in under four seconds and has an electronically restricted top speed of 125 mph.

It also has a $110,000 price tag. Fisker Automotive's cars are cheaper though. They only charge around $90,000 for those.

Close to a billion of our tax dollars have been loaned to companies that make cars which most of us reading this can't afford. I don't know a person who can afford a $90,000 car. Perhaps you do, but the point is very simple. If you are truly invested in lowering the level of carbon dioxide emitted from internal combustion engines, why are you putting money into companies that a majority of Americans can't afford? Fisker only has 1,500 orders for their Karma model. Their goal is 15,000 by 2011.

How is that making a difference? How is that a good use of public funds?

Perhaps they are looking to the future and the cheaper Fisker model, the Nina, priced at $39,900. Even if Fisker can produce the Nina for $39,900, that still a big chunk of change for the average American.

But let's go ahead and give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this leads to big things down the road. Let's say these investments, combined with the $300 million allocated for 17,600 green vehicles and the $2,500 tax credit for buying a plug-in vehicle, get the hybrid or fully electric car driving population up to a little over 50 percent.

According to the Government Accounting Office, there isn't enough electricity produced in America to support those numbers. More power plants would have to be built and unless they are all nuclear, more hybrid cars on the road won't change the level of carbon dioxide produced in America. Not even a little bit.

“If you are using coal fired power plants and half the country’s electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?”
Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report and a specialist in energy issues told CNSNews.com.

The report found that the adoption of plug-in cars could result in benefits, including reduced petroleum consumption and dependency.

But it concedes that in regions of the country heavily reliant on coal for power generation, electric plug-in vehicles will not result in a decrease in green house gas emissions.

Essentially, we are spending billions to spin our wheels.

Rather than loaning this money to the companies Al Gore is invested in, perhaps we could simply get out of the way of progress.

If the goal is lowering the level of carbon dioxide, then tell the environmentalists to stop prohibiting the construction of nuclear power plants. They are an extremely safe source of electricity and produce no carbon dioxide. Palo Verde is the largest nuclear generating station in the United States. It generates "3.2 gigawatts (GW) of electrical power production in 2003^[1] to serve approximately 4 million people." The only carbon generated is in getting the more than two thousand employees to work each day.

If the goal is lessening the dependence America has on foreign oil, then again, get government and the environmental lobby out of the way. There are billions of barrels of oil in America, but environmental regulations keep them in the ground rather than in the refineries.

Instead of spending the money in new nuclear power plants or allowing our natural resources to be utilized, America finds itself spending billions to see little or no results. Investing your property in a company that produces $100,000 cars will not save the planet from global warming.

And once they spend the money to buy the car, how can they afford to pay for the electricity to charge it up? After all, Obama pledged to cause energy prices to skyrocket.

Let me be very clear: The government is spending your money to produce a car that most Americans can't afford in order to produce zero effect on the level of carbon dioxide and intends to simultaneously make it more expensive to fuel the electrically powered vehicle.

Any questions?

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