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

To: Brumar89 who wrote (923384)	2/27/2016 12:08:18 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1577886

Will cheap gas kill electric and hybrid cars? High gas prices tend to be good news for electric cars and hybrids. In March 2012, gas averaged $3.92 a gallon , bringing it uncomfortably close to the record $4-plus peak seen in 2008. That same month, Toyota* (* TM ) and General Motors ( GM ) reported record sales for the Prius hybrid and Chevrolet Volt hybrid-electric car , respectively. Today, however, the nationwide average gas price for February is below $2.00 per gallon . Now that gas prices are at record lows, the argument that these eco-friendly vehicles save consumers money at the pump seems weak. A look at last year’s car-sales data reveals that Americans are increasingly gravitating toward pickup trucks and SUVs, which, while improving their fuel consumption, are still less fuel-efficient than electric cars and hybrids. In 2015, car makers sold an unprecedented 17.5 million vehicles , up 5.7% from the prior year and 0.4% from the record set in 2000. According to Kelley Blue Book, more than half of all transactions comprised truck and SUV sales, driving up the average sales price to $34,428 . Several factors contributed to last year’s uptick in car purchases: increased employment, low interest rates (which means better deals on auto financing) and cheap gas. Apparently, these trends haven’t extended their benefits to electric and hybrid cars: per InsideEVs, overall electric vehicle sales declined year-over-year between 2014 and 2015, falling 5.2% from 122,438 to 116,099 . According to data from HybridCars.com, hybrid sales plummeted 14.9% from 451,702 in 2014 to 384,404 in 2015. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/will-cheap-gas-kill-electric-and-hybrid-cars-cm582069#ixzz41Id9JZ6I

To: Brumar89 who wrote (923384)	2/27/2016 12:25:43 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577886

"Without government support or high taxes, green energy will never be able to compete with conventional, more reliable power plants." Without government support , conventional power plants couldn't compete with conventional power plants. Energy Subsidies The IEA, within the framework of the World Energy Outlook, has been measuring fossil-fuel subsidies in a systematic and regular fashion for more than a decade. Its analysis is aimed at demonstrating the impact of fossil-fuel subsidy removal for energy markets, climate change and government budgets. The IEA’s latest estimates indicate that fossil-fuel consumption subsidies worldwide amounted to $493 billion in 2014, $39 billion down on the previous year, in part due to the drop in international energy prices, with subsidies to oil products representing over half of the total. Those subsidies were over four-times the value of subsidies to renewable energy. Since 2009 the IEA has provided ongoing input to the G-20 and APEC in support of their commitments to “rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption”. Many countries are now pursuing reforms, but steep economic, political and social hurdles will need to be overcome to realise lasting gains. The IEA has also established an on-line database ?to increase the availability and transparency of energy subsidy data as this is seen as an essential step in building momentum for global fossil-fuel subsidy reform. Improved access to data on fossil-fuel subsidies will raise awareness about their magnitude and incidence and encourage informed debate on whether the subsidy represents an economically efficient allocation of resources or whether it would be possible to achieve the same objectives by alternative means. The IEA’s World Energy Outlook Special Report, Energy and Climate Change, highlighted how the (partial) phase-out of subsidies to fossil-fuel consumption could help keep the 2 °C target alive while international negotiations continue. worldenergyoutlook.org