Drive Like the Wind, or At Least With It

<p>Legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is half right. We do need to harness this country’s wind resources for a homegrown source of electricity, as he has been urging this summer in expensive television ads. And we do need to reduce the $700 billion we may soon be paying annually for imported oil. But part two of Pickens’s plan–to move natural gas out of electricity production and use it to fuel cars instead–just doesn’t make sense.<br />
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Why not use the wind-generated electricity to power cars directly? Natural gas is still a fossil fuel that emits climate-changing gases when burned. Let’s cut the natural-gas middleman.<br />
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Plug-in cars are here, nearly ready to market. We just need to put wind in the driver’s seat. Several major auto manufacturers, including GM, Ford, Toyota and Nissan, are producing plug-in hybrids. Both Toyota and GM are committed to marketing plug-in hybrids in 2010. Toyota might even try to deliver a plug-in version of its Prius gas-electric hybrid, the bestseller whose U.S. sales match those of all other hybrids combined, next year.<br />

  • Published on Sep 17, 2008
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