Hrm, I'm guessing I'm about to reach new heights in popularity on a BBS

I'm for Bush 100% (and at the aforementioned site all the other candidates were 43% or lower, Joe Lieberman being the 43%).

I'm absolutely opposed to regulatory and tax burdens being applied in an attempt to skew the economy into buying green (or any other type) of cars.

Technology should advance until free choice makes green and fun and useful synonymous for everyone, not until tax after tax hikes gas prices up to $5 or government imposes a MPG standard or regulations make SUVs illegal.

The first generation of hybrids were not massively popular because they simply don't add up costwise. People can do the math... roughly, a $20k Insight gets about 30mpg more than a $13k Civic; at $1.70 a gallon and 15000 miles a year it takes over 25 years to make up the difference, long after both cars have rusted/oxidized.

The next generation is combining comfort with MPG (new Prius, Civic Hybrid); next up is performance and MPG. These are still speciality niches, but larger and larger inroads into the general populace. By this time next decade with no government intervention at all hybrids will be commonplace because they will be quick, efficient, comfortable AND affordable.

(Side note: the hybrid I want is an Insight power train shoehorned into a Caterham 7).

OTOH if we use the big club of government to shove everything around we can end up with nothing that works and auto lobbyists preserving the status quo with wierd loopholes. The entire SUV phenomenon has its roots in a dodge of the CAFE standards; people wanted large vehicles but if it was called 'car' it had to play by one set of rules, so people went over to 'truck' where those rules didn't apply. If carmakers weren't catering to an arbitrary series of rules people would be driving more efficient cars rather than monstrosities just to get the amenities they wanted in the first place.

That's one of the many reasons I oppose liberals like Kerry or Edwards who would like to 'manage' the economy with regulation and tax (namely, the one that has most relevance to the hybrid issue).