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Presidential Candidates Call for More Hybrids

Published April 11, 2008

John McCain visited a Ford assembly plant in February. The tour focused on Ford's hybrid and fuel efficient models.

Even with the economy and the war in Iraq dominating the discourse surrounding the presidential elections, environmental concerns and energy policy could potentially become major issues by the end of the summer. Oil prices hit record highs seemingly every week, and young voters—who have been a crucial demographic in several primary states—tend to see the environment as one of the most crucial challenges facing the country.

As Newsweek points out, only around 10 percent of voters said they would weigh a candidate's environmental positions in the last two elections, but this year that number has jumped to 30 percent.

Each of the three remaining candidates have made efforts to be perceived as "forward thinking" environmental issues, and if Americans are paying in excess of $4.50 per gallon for gasoline by the end of the summer, it's likely that both nominees will scramble to create proposals to ease the burden. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both already outlined major energy and transportation initiatives designed to stimulate public transportation, plug-in hybrid technologies and biofuels.

Obama

Obama's energy plan would allocate $150 billion over ten years to help build a green energy sector and dramatically increase current fuel efficiency standards by 2018—even beyond new CAFE levels. Obama says his goal is to reduce oil consumption the United States by at least 35 percent by the year 2030. Last year, the senator introduced a bill that would pay as much as 10 percent of retiree health care costs for auto companies that were willing to invest half of those savings into hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles.

Clinton

Hillary Clinton favors an almost identical increase in fuel efficiency standards, but her plan offers an array of incentives for hybrid buyers and manufacturers. One such proposal would give a tax credit of up to $10,000 toward the purchase of a plug-in hybrid or the retrofitting of an existing hybrid to incorporate plug-in technology. Clinton also wants to add 100,000 plug-ins to the federal fleet and help cities and states pay to do the same.

McCain

John McCain favors establishing "a national challenge to improve the cost, range, size, and weight of electric batteries for automobiles," and flexible fuel technologies, but he has yet to unveil a detailed energy plan. It is worth noting that McCain was the only major Republican candidate to discuss climate change with any urgency during the primaries, and that he has consistently called for a decreased dependence on foreign oil while opposing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Many of these proposals would have us hitting around 55 MPG by 2030. But like with much of what the candidates offer, you have to close your eyes and click your heels three times and just hope that when the details are filled in later, it'll be as good as it sounds.