Mail Call: A Turbulent Time

The Hybrid ' s Time Has Finally Come
Your article "The Green Car Domino Effect" (Sept. 24) reinforced the popular myth that electric cars are more fuel- and cost-efficient than conventional gasoline engines and also reduce greenhouse gases from personal transport, and that somehow electric power has no cost or carbon footprint. The reality is that when using fossil-fuel-generated electricity, electric-vehicle power simply moves the carbon footprint from vehicle exhaust to power-plant chimney, and increases it significantly overall, with a cost penalty. What is needed now is to stop wasting gasoline by restricting the size of vehicle engines for normal personal use and make them more efficient. This could easily produce a fourfold improvement in consumption for a five-seater family car in one stroke. It's down to whether voters really care about the next generation if conserving energy affects their convenience, or the media's telling the truth by using people who understand the issues directly rather than reciting P.C. propaganda from corporate mouthpieces and dissembling politicians who will do nothing to address the structural issues seriously.
Brian Catt
London, England

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