Good news for EVs from the White House

I was very happy to see the press release from the White House on March 7 promoting electric vehicles
See press release.

The key points that caught my eye were:

• Increasing the credit for EV buyers from $7,500, making it scalable up to $10,000;
• Reforming the credit to make it available at the point-of-sale by making it transferable to the dealer or financier, allowing consumers to benefit when they purchase a vehicle rather than when they file their taxes; and
• Removing the cap on the number of vehicles per manufacturer eligible for the credit and, instead, ramping down and eventually eliminating the credit at the end of the decade.

In addition, the "EV Everywhere" program includes $650 million in the 2013 budget to invest in breakthrough R&D for advanced batteries, electric drivetrain technologies, lightweight vehicle structures, and fast charging technology.

I didn't like the way the White House is promoting natural gas, since that is no way to solve global warming.  But on the whole, it's a good program.  It's light years away from the Republican presidential candidates who, incredibly, are stepping all over each other to see who can be the most backward on global warming, reducing oil imports, and cleaning the air.  Mitt Romney once said, "The Volt is an idea who's time has not come."  I think of him as being like the people who derided the first automobiles by saying, "Get a horse" or those who laughed at the first steamboat, calling it "Fulton's folly."  At least we have a President who understands that we need to move into the future.