LEFT HOLDING THE PLUG? The high purchase cost of hybrid plug-in vehicles, increased electricty usage, battery limits, and taxpayer subsidies make plug-ins the next vehicle boondoggle, a research study shows.

When politicians and environmental activists hammer the table about the need to break our so-called "addiction to oil" -- as they are doing with increased fervor in response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- they seldom spend much time explaining exactly how we should go about doing so.

About 70% of the oil we consume goes into the transportation sector, so wind, solar, and nuclear power plants are of little help. Ethanol, methanol, compressed natural gas, all-electric vehicles, and hydrogen-powered fuel cells might someday do the trick, but at present, those fuels and technologies are far too expensive and environmentally problematic to substitute for gasoline. . .

. . . A new report from the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences, however, suggests that PHEVs may well be another in a long list of failed government attempts to redesign our cars. The study, titled "Transitions to Alternative Transportation Technologies - Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles," is brutal. . .

HYBRID PLUG-INS ARTICLE HERE.