Arlington Institute Study "Moving America Away from Oil"   Highlites from the study proposing a 15 year phase out of oil based transportation. PDF FILE available here (Archived Copy) http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org (Direct Source) Contributers credits within document - These people are saving the world!   About 26% of the total energy consumption in the United States is used for transportation. Oil, 60% of which is imported, provides nearly all that energy.. Where is this all going in the end? What does the world of transportation look like in, say, 2050? It's our guess that it's an all-electric world. Almost all vehicles (and most of the rest of our tools) will be electrically powered &endash; the question is where and how the electricity is generated. Breakthroughs in generation, distribution and storage are almost inevitable and will eliminate all of the major problems associated with electricity today. There are a number of fundamental considerations that will always be major factors in any changes to a new energy source: political and economic feasibility, environmental impact, utilization of existing infrastructure, potential geopolitical disruption, et al. An increasing number of manufacturers are producing hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Electricity is produced in an HEV from an internal combustion engine/generator set and stored in batteries. Either the engine or the batteries is then used for powering electric drive motors under the most efficient conditions. HEVs are the first step toward an allelectric vehicle, and if the engine were an E85/HEV engine it would at the same time be much more fuel-efficient while a larger portion of the fuel would come from North America. Efficiency could be significantly increased above that gained from powertrain upgrades by integrating full-system design measures that take into consideration elements like aerodynamic drag, rolling friction, heating and cooling efficiencies, etc. The best example of this is the Hypercar® that has been developed in Colorado. Hypercar® design ideas combined with the HEV drivetrain could theoretically produce average fuel consumptions around 90 mpg. The HEV/Hypercar® could easily be upgraded with fuel cells when they become commercially available. That would be a natural evolution along the developmental path to national independence, vehicle efficiency, and environmental friendliness. All of these initiatives must be implemented while keeping in mind the larger objective of maintaining geopolitical stability. It would make no sense to solve our domestic energy problem by causing a number of equally significant, enduring crises in other parts of the world . . . that we then have to deal with for decades to come. We must take a holistic approach to dealing with this system.   Hybrid Trucks!!! ElectricCars.com Covers the Fall Introduction     Milestone: Ongoing coverage of the evolution of Electric Trucks... We first saw a full sized Chevy Sequoia hybrid pickup truck way back in 2001 at the Los Angeles auto show. It was produced by UC Davis, California and we knew what was coming... America is going to go ape over these hybrids pickups!!! They feature ALL the power, long range and appearance of gas versions, AT THE SAME PRICE!!! But now consider looking at a hybrid pickup on the showroom sitting next to a gas truck... The mileage will be about 60-75% higher! for the same price! Over the term of owning a "HT" (Hybrid truck - Yea we coined that way back in 1998) the gas savings will more than pay for the vehicle compared to it's gas guzzling cousins. These trucks are going to be coming to dealerships this fall... Dodge, Ford, Chevrolet and Lexus are all coming out with HT's that make sense to own. "America wants SUV's and Trucks... Now they're electric"