Comments on: Obama opens spigot on plug-in electric-car grants

President Obama details $2.4 billion in loans to U.S. companies to promote development of plug-in car batteries and related technologies.

[websterphreaky]

And WHEN this Chicago Political Moron shuts down all the Coal Fired Electrical Plants, stops ANY new Nuclear Power Plants and forces Oil back up to $200 a barrel and YOUR ELECTRICITY BILL QUADRUPLES ..... HOW are you going to afford to CHARGE THAT ELECTRIC CAR??????

WAKE UP MORONS!! You are being SNOWED by a Socialist!

[mikekrause]

Are you kidding me? Is this really the best use of government incentive dollars? How about pouring money into cheaper, more efficient ways to produce the electricity BEFORE we actually tax our current system, which is predominately dependent on coal and natural gas to charge these batteries.

I have nothing against plug-in electric cars. It's just getting the cart before the horse to encourage the consumers of the energy to convert before the producers of the energy have done a damn thing to be more efficient.

[pintos-n-cheese]

I also like plug-in cars since they indeed will reduce emissions in the US, although emissions may increase from power plants churning more electricity to those cars.

But my real concern now is, when millions of cars full of batteries many years from now die, where will all those dead batteries go? A landfill? Recycled? I really need to hear more about the future plans for handling this issue.

[streamline35]

I don't think you so much "have concerns", as just don't know what you're talking about.

Even if every car on the road today became electric and ran off of coal power, it would still be cleaner than running every car off gasoline. Coal is pretty dirty, but at the power plant, it is 1) far more efficiently burned and converted to electricity (where as an ICE loses most of its energy to heat), and 2) cleaned more effectively before leaving the chimney.

When the batteries die, they are recycled. All the current NiMH batteries in hybrids today are fully recyclable. Toyota offers $200 to return old batteries for recycling. Lithium ion batteries are also capable of being fully recycled. Laptop and other electronics manufacturers do it all the time. Toxic batteries were a much bigger problem back when those horrible lead acid batteries were used. Today it is not much of a problem (not to mention cost effective for a company to recycle)

[freemarket--2008]

@streamline35: I agree with you for the most part, except about the lead acid battery comment. Yes dead acid batteries are toxic, but they have been easily recycled for decades. I remember my father taking them to the scrap yard back in the 60s.

[kdraks]

This is brilliant, after Reagan moved into the Whitehouse and REMOVED the solar panels that Carter installed, we have lost our lead in developing solar energy to China and Germany. The following years remanded us to the hands of big oil and now, finally, we have some investment in R&D that will help keep us competitive. It is fundamental research like this that has brought us the technologies that we all take for granted today. Stimulating research and developing new technologies is something that the US is very, very good at. Now we just need to develop an education system that helps kids train to be scientists so they can learn to be objective and not equate spending government monies with socialism.

I do agree that we need to pass laws to make it legal to deploy nuclear power in the U.S. Without that, we will continue to be dependent on big oil for a long, long time

[Button Boy]

I have ordered several different plug-in EVs from new auto companies. Pity the Volt has become such a disappointment- I was very interested in it at first. I will be glad to support a genuinely innovative company- I hope it will be American.

[bassdad05]

All interested should read this interview from David Pogue at NYTimes with Better Place chief executive Shai Agassi. http://bitly.com/9ol58. Here is an example of an approach to electric vehicles that has real traction and makes real strides towards greenhouse gas reduction and energy independence. If supporting domestic business while cleaning up our environment is Socialism, sign me up!

[nu-idea]

My neighbor installed a solar roof on his house, and his first month?s electric bill was .23¢. He enjoys watching his meter running backwards. Put this idea together with a new plug-in hybrid or electric car and, Voila! There you have it.

[HeavyJim]

Grants, stimulus, bailouts......no matter what savings you think you are going to get from these, how in the heck is this country going to pay for it all?

[Dalkorian]

By not sending trillions to fight an illegal war in Iraq? Why are retardicans so dense?

[HeavyJim]

Dense? Retardican? I see you are a liberal. Anyway, why worry about Iraq? Seems the plan now is to fudge on getting troops out of Iraq, take forever, then just send them to Afghanistan. Yeah, dense. You should understand that.