Al Gore's First Ride in a Plug-In Hybrid
Oct 24, 2006 (From the CalCars-News archive)

Capping our recent meetings with Bill Clinton, senior Dept of Energy
team and others, this week our car became a "green-tuned" limo for
Al Gore for a round-trip between Oakland Airport and downtown
Berkeley. (I was not in the car.) Gore came to give a public
endorsement of Proposition 87. The audience was inspired and very
enthusiastic.You can see almost 10 minutes of his speech at
<http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_296194424.html> -- and links
to news stories at the Prop 87 website <http://www.yeson87.org>.

On his way back to our car, as he greeted people, he stopped to talk
with me and Calcars Tech Lead Ron Gremban. He was especially
interested in how much more a PHEV would cost. (I told him that in
production quantities, auto-makers could charge $3-5,000 more than
today's hybrids, and that conversions were over $10,000.) And he
wanted to know what was available. I gave him a "dongle" and
explained that it was the car's infrastructure. Photos at
<http://www.calcars.org/photos-people.html>. From the back seat of
the car, he thanked me for the ride and gave a "thumbs up" while
holding our packet of background material. (Most of it is available
at <http://www.calcars.org/downloads.html>.) As with Bill Clinton a
week ago, we'll follow up as well as we can!

We hope Gore's experience will lead to him highlighting PHEVs. In his
Sept 18 speech at NYU Law School,
<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/524.html>, addressing the
questions he gets as people increasingly ask what they can do, he
included PHEVs in his roundup of "particularly promising" global
warming solutions. Focusing on electrification of transportation is a
great way to slow the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. It's the
one we can do quickest, from increasingly renewable sources, with the
lowest efficiency losses. Since it also happens to be distributed,
redundant, secure, domestic and low-cost, we think it will makes
sense as the primary fuel for transportation, with renewable liquid
fuels providing range extension until batteries improve further.
That's why experts like NASA's James Hansen, CalTech's Nate Lewis,
Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown, UC Berkeley's Daniel Kammen,
the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions' Joe Romm and the
National Commission on Energy Policy all see PHEVs as a leading
short- and long-term solution. (See
<http://www.calcars.org/endorsements.html>.)

(You can comment on this post and the one about last week's events at
our blog, Power, Plugs and People, at the revamped HybridCars.com
website: <http://www.hybridcars.com/blogs/power/yesonprop87.html>.)