Reply #5: Remember Rush Limbaugh ridiculing the hybrid car as the "algore"?

[billbuckhead]

Almost a decade ago, El Rushbo and other Repukes had great sport saying Americans would never buy these ridiculous cars then being promoted by Al Gore.
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"Gore writes in Earth in the Balance earnestly and passionately about how he traveled the world, from the polar ice caps to the Amazon rain forests and how bad environmental practices have resulted in the disappearance of many animal species. He talks about how the burning of oil has led to the increase of greenhouse gasses like C02 and how this leads to a gradual warming of temperatures on earth a theory called global warming. Gore even called for a Global Marshall Plan, akin to the post W.W.II plan that rebuilt the economies of Europe, this Global Marshall Plan would help convert to cleaner burning technologies And, Gore of course called for the elimination of the internal combustion engine in his lifetime. This was the most controversial of Gore's assertions.

Republicans were quick to attack Gore and the ideas he represented. They call global warming junk science, and Republicans seized on the "death of the internal combustion engine" as they called it, as the stance of some left wing, loony, tree hugging enviro-nut. Where would the money for such a transformation come from? they asked, wouldn't such a transformation would cause an undue burden on the economy, they bellowed. These are the same Republicans who don't have any problems giving companies like Enron and IBM retroactive business tax breaks.

But history seems to be on Gore's side, the internal combustion engine seems to be going the way of the T-Rex. Honda was the first to mass produce a so-called 'hybrid car' one that uses both gas and electrical power. The car is called the Honda Insight. It uses a 1 liter VTEC gas engine, but it also uses an electric motor to supplement the torque of the engine at lower speeds. The advantages of hybrid cars are many. The combination of both gas and electric engines provide the car with more than enough speed and power to get up the steepest incline. Gas mileage is also greatly improved, Honda estimates that the Insight gets 61 miles per gallon in city diving and 70 miles per gallon on the highway.

Not to be outdone Toyota announced the mass production of it's own hybrid car, the Prius, which uses a 1.5 liter gas engine and electrical engine. At low speeds, the Prius uses solely the electrical motor for power. What's more, the Prius has an onboard generator to charge the electrical motor. Toyota's Prius is doing so well in sales that Toyota announced in December 2001, that it was going to increase production of the Prius by almost 40%."
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<http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/01/14_... >