news
By Emmanuel Glakpe Could America’s costly de-
pendence on imported oil be overcome by the plug-in elec- tric car?
Although electric cars ac-
count for a tiny fraction of the vehicles on the road, automo- bile manufacturers envision a mass market for them. And if they are right, the nation’s au- tomobile fleet may be poised for a profound shift in the years ahead.
Electric vehicles could lit-
erally transform the energy calculus because oil as an au- tomotive fuel would gradually be replaced by batteries. One result would be a decline in oil imports, with fewer dollars going to hostile and irrespon- sible oil-producing countries. Another benefit would be less oil discharged into the ocean by deep water drilling rigs and tankers and a reduction in air- borne emissions, particularly carbon dioxide emissions from the tailpipes of cars and trucks.
Most importantly, the mass
production of electric vehicles would help reverse the big- gest problem facing the United States — rising unemploy- ment. Huge numbers of jobs would be created at automo- bile factories and companies that produce batteries.
Batteries are safe, afford-
able and reliable. To recharge batteries, the idea is to use electricity from non-polluting sources like solar and wind power and nuclear energy. Nuclear plants have the most appeal, because they produce large amounts of electricity dependably, night and day, no matter what the weather con- ditions might be. Most electric vehicles could be recharged in home garages at night when there is less demand for power.
As word spreads among
consumers about what elec- tric vehicles can do, especially as second family cars that save money in fuel costs, it’s hard to see how this revolution can be stopped.
President Obama has
pledged to put 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the road by 2015. And the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved a bill that would provide nearly $4 billion over 10 years toward building infrastructure for charging electric vehicles and incentives to encourage con- sumers to buy battery-pow- ered cars. The goal is to elec- trify half the country’s cars and trucks by 2030, which
E. Glakpe
could reduce demand for oil in the United States by as much as one-third.
Some all-
electric cars are already
on the road. Right now there are perhaps 1,000 plug-in electric cars in California, where the state government offers a number of incentives for consumers to buy electric cars, including rebates. Cali- fornia’s goal is to have 7,500 electric cars on its roads by 2014, rising to 60,000 elec- trics in 2017.
BMW has leased several
hundred battery-powered ve- hicles in Southern California, the New York area and New Jersey, and microcar maker Smart USA is launching a test fleet of electric cars in several states and along the Washing- ton to Boston corridor of In- terstate 95.
General Motors recently
began selling the Volt hybrid electric car. Later this year, Nissan, Ford, Chrysler and other automobile manufactur- ers are expected to offer their versions of electric cars. Al- together about two dozen car companies plan to sell elec- trics in the next few years.
Granted, the restricted
range of electric cars limits their appeal. Some electric-car models have a range of about 100 miles, while others get 40 miles before their power runs down, requiring a gasoline- powered generator on board to recharge the batteries. Two companies just announced plans to open battery factories in Michigan. As investment in electric-car technology grows, the efficiency of batteries is expected to leap as much as twofold or threefold in the next few years.
Electric car sales will also
depend in large part on the availability of recharging sta- tions – and, more importantly, the time it takes to recharge a car. A high-voltage fast charg- ing station planned at loca- tions such as shopping malls or at recharging stations along highways provides an 80 per- cent charge in 20 minutes. It takes at least twice as long to recharge a car using less powerful stations – known as Level 2 stations. Most electric vehicle owners are expected to recharge their cars overnight in home garages using slower low-voltage stations.
California is subsidizing
more than 5,000 charging sta- tions that ought to be in oper-
THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE The time to start up electric vehicles is now
ation by 2012. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Energy is funding construction of about 11,000 charging stations in five states: California, Arizona, Oregon, Tennessee and Wash- ington.
Experts estimate it would
cost between $5 billion and $10 billion to install charg- ing and battery-swap stations along the major traffic cor- ridors of the United States. That’s the equivalent of one week’s worth of gasoline.
While there have been major
improvements in battery tech- nology in recent years, experts say we have only scratched the surface of what’s pos- sible. We need to be search- ing with a much greater sense of urgency for more advanced battery technologies and ways to recharge cars in the time it takes to fill a car with gasoline.
That trend could
grow as new science prompts greater concern about climate change. And the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf has gotten more and more people think- ing about electric cars.
The government should
provide financial support for electric-vehicle development in the form of loan guarantees and other incentives. Con- gress needs to pass the pro- posed Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010. The measure would provide $11 billion, for battery research and for manufacturing electric vehicles, along with awards of up to $800 million for cities and communities around the country to deploy electric ve- hicles and build recharging stations.
The electric vehicle revolu-
tion offers significant new pos- sibilities for powering Amer- ica’s automobiles with clean energy that only electricity can deliver – in ways that were not considered possible a decade ago. But the transformation will require new advances in technology, institutional in- novation and investment over a number of years.
With time and effort, a shift
to electric vehicles will go a long way toward solving our energy and environmental problems – and reduce, if not totally eliminate, the need for imported oil. But above all, the production of electric vehicles would re-energize our auto companies, creating more well-paying jobs for Ameri- cans at factories across the country.
Emmanuel Glakpe is pro-
fessor of mechanical and nu- clear engineering at Howard University.
Goodbye, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, we knew you too well
By Dr. Jason Johnson Last week Dr. Laura Sch-
lessinger, a formerly relevant and influential radio talk show host, announced her retire- ment after 30 years on the air on “Larry King Live,” a former- ly relevant night-time cable talk show. Dr. Laura, whose star power had faded so much that the only place she could book for her retirement an- nouncement was the soon- to- be-cancelled Larry King show, claimed that she was leaving her due to the controversy and criticism surrounding her after using the “N” word 11 times in talking to a caller the previous week. But don’t fooled that Dr. Laura was leaving radio on her own terms. She tried to pull a “Rush Limbaugh” but it just didn’t work out the way she planned.
In case you had forgot-
ten, Dr. Laura Schlessinger was one of the most pow- erful voices in radio in the ’90s, only topped in ratings by Rush. Her tough Simon Cowell-esque advice to her mostly female audience about raising kids and marriage was lapped up by audiences, and her books with titles like “10 Stupid Things Women Do To Mess Up Their lives” were bestsellers. She eventually fell from grace when it was revealed that she had cheated on her first husband, broke up her second husband’s mar- riage, intentionally had a child out of wedlock and slept her way to the top in radio.
The coup de grace was
when a former boss and lover released naked photos of her online for the world to see. Having been exposed as an unrepentant hypocrite by the late ’90s, Laura had fallen off the talk show map, overtaken by Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and others. She’s been des- perately trying to claw her way back into the spotlight
and nobody cared. Then she announced five days later that she was leaving radio after 30 years because she refused to be silenced by her critics. Did she mean critics or crickets? No one was trying to silence her because nobody cared what Dr. Larua said anymore.
The whole scenario seemed Dr. Jason Johnson
for years and her recent racial controversy and subsequent retirement were as phony and transparent as much of her latter career.
Two weeks ago an alleged
African-American woman in an interracial marriage called in seeking advice from Dr. Laura. The woman said that her husband’s friends and family used racial slurs around her all the time, that this hurt her feelings and that her husband didn’t seem to care didn’t do anything about it. Dr. Laura, seizing the opportunity, told the woman she was being too sensitive, and then proceeded to say “n----r” 11 times while arguing that since some Black comedians and rappers use the word, this woman should just accept it too.
I’ll bet Dr. Laura thought
this would catapult her into the public narrative again, but guess what? Nothing hap- pened. The NAACP didn’t call for her firing, Jesse Jackson didn’t give a speech, nobody said much of anything about it on cable news. Dr. Laura tried a racial publicity stunt
choreographed and it’s not like we haven’t seen right wing pundits do this before. When Rush Limbaugh was going to be suspended from ESPN for impending drug charges, what did he do? He created a fire- storm by saying racist things about quarterback Donovan McNabb so he could walk off on his own terms, pretending to be a conservative martyr, when really he was just cover- ing his own behind. Dr. Larua’s show was on its last legs and she wanted to draw some at- tention, so she created a fake scandal.
Do you really believe a
Black woman having racial issues with her White hus- band would call Dr. Laura for help? Not to mention the fact that Dr. Laura didn’t answer the woman’s question; she just went on a racist rant that she had been planning all along and used the “caller” as an excuse to do it.
However, unlike Rush,
Dr. Laura wasn’t important enough to generate the kind of controversy that she wanted to jump start her career or go out in a blaze of glory. Instead she goes out with a whimper, like a child threatening to hold their breath and nobody at the dinner table really cares.
Hopefully, a lesson has
been learned in all of this — that when right wing pun- dits play the race card, they have to actually be important enough to warrant interest. Otherwise, they’re just bigots who had a megaphone to tell everyone they’re retiring.
September is National Cholesterol Education Month
August 25-31, 2010
Page A-7
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32