Hybrid Car Incentives

While hybrid cars remain more expensive than regular gasoline driven cars, there are corporations and local governments that are offering incentives to think green when buying a vehicle.
The city of Connecticut offers free meter parking for hybrids and some business are offering special parking for fuel efficient vehicles.
There's also financial institutions looking to support green thinking, with the Bank of America offering employees a $3000 cash incentive to buy hybrid cars.
As gas prices rise, companies are taking action. While the government scrambles for ideas or avoids the issue, there are more and more privately or publicly held companies taking action.
Bank of America to Offer Incentives to Buy Hybrids
"Hybrids are powered by a gas engine and an electric motor, increasing fuel efficiency and reducing emissions. The hybrid Honda Civic, for example, gets 50 miles per gallon, compared to 34 miles per gallon for the regular Civic, according to hybridcars.com. But hybrid cars also cost more. The Bank of America rebate matches a $3,000 federal tax credit for buying a hybrid. On Wednesday, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pushed a bill his administration drew up with Senate leaders that would provide a $2,000 state tax credit, and move the cost of hybrid closer to a regular car. The bill has not been passed by the House." ENN
>> Hybrid Car News, Big Businesses

Post Peak Oil World

With the rising price of oil dominating the news each night there has been surprisingly little talk of a world without oil. Is it a problem that is just too difficult to contemplate, do we just want to leave it for the next generation, and is it simply a matter of us fearing a possible lowering in living standards?
The author of "Beyond the Oil Peak", Lester R. Brown briefly discusses the issue in an excerpt from his latest book..
The World After Oil Peaks
"In the coming energy transition, there will be winners and losers. Countries that fail to plan ahead, that lag in investing in more oil-efficient technologies and new energy sources, may experience a decline in living standards. The inability of national governments to manage the energy transition could lead to a failure of confidence in leaders and to failed states.
National political leaders seem reluctant to face the coming downturn in oil and to plan for it even though it will almost certainly become one of the great fault lines in the history of civilization. Trends now taken for granted, such as urbanization and globalization, could be reversed almost overnight as oil becomes scarce and costly.
Developing countries will be hit doubly hard as still-expanding populations combine with a shrinking oil supply to steadily reduce oil use per person. Such a decline could quickly translate into a fall in living standards. If the United States, the world’s largest oil consumer and importer, can sharply reduce its use of oil, it can buy the world time for a smoother transition to the post-petroleum era." Read the full article here..

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