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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (532227)	11/24/2009 8:59:22 AM
From: RetiredNow	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1574377

THE ELECTRIFICATION ROADMAP news.discovery.com By Chris Davis \| Tue Nov 24, 2009 06:52 AM ET The Electrification Roadmap lays out a plan to transition the United States to electric vehicles by 2040. The plan is comprehensive, cogent, informed by organizations immersed in the details of electrification, and synchronized with current real world efforts. If you want to know where we are going, read this. If you want to see a smart business case that offers meaningful solutions to national security, environmental sustainability, energy security and prosperity challenges, read this. Here are some sound bites from the report: Purpose: "To provide a public policy guide to transforming the U.S. light-duty ground transportation system from one that is oil-dependent to one powered almost entirely by electricity." Goal: "By 2040, 75 percent of the light-duty vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the United States should be electric miles." Why is business asking government to develop public policy?: "Ideally, the technology and deployment of electric vehicles would emerge through regular market mechanisms. Events conclusively demonstrate that this path to electrification is unlikely, however. Therefore, if the desired transformation is to occur anytime in the foreseeable future, focused and sustained public policy will be required." The problem with oil: "Heavy reliance on petroleum has created unsustainable risks to American economic and national security. The economic risks are all too clear: so long as the cars and trucks that power our economy are dependent on a single fuel source, the majority of which is produced in hostile nations and unstable regions of the world and the price of which is increasingly volatile, our economy is at the mercy of events and actors largely beyond our control." "The global oil market is far removed from the free market ideal." 78 to 90 percent of global oil and gas reserves are held by nationally owned companies. Why is electrification good? Because it's diverse and domestic, price stable, scalable, characterized by substantial spare capacity and an extant network infrastructure, cheaper (one-fourth the fuel cost) and cleaner than gasoline. Why the U.S. might be at a disadvantage relative to other nations: "There are more than 2,000 electric utilities and 50 state utility regulators in the United States—compared to just one or a handful of utilities and a single regulator in many other nations." "Americans have a distinct and well-defined perception of the automobile, and we have built much of our country around the concept of mobility. The average person in China has not yet attached any specific value or conception to an internal combustion engine versus an electric drivetrain. Without preconceptions of desired performance or range, Chinese consumers figure to be much quicker adopters of affordable electric vehicles." there are "substantial costs associated with failure to move aggressively to support electrification. In particular, the United States is currently on a path to be at best a second-tier participant in the emerging global market for GEVs [grid enabled vehicles] and their component parts...the U.S. is likely to forfeit the income, manufacturing capacity, jobs, and economic growth associated with these markets if the status quo approach remains in place." A closing argument: "While the plan outlined in this paper will be expensive, the alternatives are more so. But we cannot compare the cost of this program to current government expenditures on energy efficiency, vehicles, and advanced energy-related technology. We must, instead, compare it to the cost of doing nothing. Stated simply, the total cost of every proposal outlined in this paper is far less than the $600 billion of costs that our dependence on oil imposed on our economy in 2008 alone." This report is business at its best: thinking beyond narrow, short term interests; thinking broadly, strategically, with social purpose; thinking collaboratively amongst industries and looking to do so with government. It is a thanks-giving feast of good thinking. Enjoy. More reading on the Electrification Roadmap: electrificationcoalition.org