Home Topics The Hill The Congress Blog The Pundit's Blog

KEY BLOGS
What they are saying today

Drudge Report
Drudge banners: "IOU" and links to this LA Times story on the budget crisis in California. And the U.S. says North Korea does not appear to be readying a missile launch in this Bloomberg story is also highlighed on Drudge. ... READ MORE

Huffington Post
The Huffington Post banners: "Obama's first major military operation underway in Afghanistan" and links to this AP story. Unemployment to hit a 9.6 percent, a 26 year high, according to this AP report, highlighted on the HuffPo. And Jesse Berney ... READ MORE

HotAir
The Obama administration doesn't see the contradiction between calling for free elections in Honduras and staying out of the election in Iran, writes Allahpundit. And veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas went "nuclear" on the White House for controlling the ... READ MORE

DailyKos
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) wants to president but "she couldn't even get her own campaign's scheduling staff to give her enough time to run," writes Jed Lewison. And South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's (R) recent confessions have set off ... READ MORE

Townhall
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's (R) Republican enemies hope he stays in office, writes Matt Lewis. And, drawing on examples from other countries, Carol Platt Liebau writes what ObamaCare "really means." READ MORE

OpenLeft
Advancing the debate over torture is always going to be difficult, writes Daniel de Groot. And Mike Lux takes a look at the fight over a new Pecora commission. READ MORE

RedState
The press is "finally" calling out the Obama administration for controlling the press, writes Paint it Red. And Moe Lane takes a detailed look at the 2010 election and the ages of several Democratic committee chair people. READ MORE

MyDD
Mitt Romney appears to be urging Republicans to stand up to President Obama, writes Charles Lemos. And Lemos also writes that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) must think the Associated Press is a "licensed therapist." READ MORE

Powerline
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) appeared to open the door to the Obama administration making more demands Israel in the peace process while in the country, writes Paul. And new polling shows that support for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is ... READ MORE

Matthew Yglesias
The entire committee system in Congress "leaves a lot to be desired," writes Matthew Yglesias. And Yglesias also points out a general thought among the punditry right now: Congress is asserting its dominance in setting and controlling the agenda, not ... READ MORE

CLICK FOR MORE
SUMMARIES



MORNING READ
MIDDAY BLOG ROUNDUP
DAY'S END ROUND-UP



You need Flash Player 8 (or higher) and JavaScript enabled to view this content

 

CLICK FOR MORE HILLTUBE

Morning Read | Midday Blog Roundup | Day's End Roundup

August 4, 2008

Obama Pledges to Convert White House Fleet to Plug-in Hybrids

@ 11:17 am by Chris Good

Barack Obama's campaign pledged today that the entire White House auto fleet will be converted to plug-in hybrid vehicles, as security permits, if the senator is elected president.

The pledge is part of Obama's energy plan that he is set to unveil this morning in a speech in Lansing, Mich., fewer than 100 miles from the headquarters of Ford and General Motors in Dearborn and Detroit.

By 2012, the campaign said, half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be plug-in hybrids or completely powered by electricity.

The campaign posed its pledges as attempts to "help create a market" for electric and hybrid cars and "show government leadership" in swaying the public towards them.

4 Comments »

The Hill welcomes comment from anyone and will almost always post it whether it is favorable or critical, as long as it is substantive and advances debate.
  1. I feel so much better now knowing that President Obama will meet our energy needs by converting the vehicles entrusted with protecting the President are electric plugins.

    The more he talks, the less competent he manages to look. Better still, wind powered vehicles

    Comment by David Hinz — August 4, 2008 @ 5:08 pm

  2. David, wow that is a ridiculous comment, Plug in hybrids are high efficiency vehicles, in fact many of them can achieve fuel efficiency beyond anything on the road today. Face it Obama actually has a plan to get us on the path to independence and a clean fuel grid, helping to deal with climate change as well, McCain only has drill, drill, drill

    Comment by axt113 — August 5, 2008 @ 9:40 am

  3. Axt113…

    Plug in hybrids do not exist yet, at least in any reliable production sense, and will not for 5-10 years. We do not even have the electric grid in place to support it, thanks to our lack of nuclear generation.

    You really think it credible that the President and staff will drive prototype vehicles around? Remember, those vehicles are armored, you think a 4 cylider with electric assist will compensate for the 400+ horsepower engine in the staff automobiles?

    I could see converting to Tahoe Hybrids for some staff, but armored cars?

    You are in lala land with Obama…

    Comment by Matt — August 6, 2008 @ 1:34 am

  4. Two plugin vehicles are in current testing: the Chevy Volt and a plugin version of the Prius. They are expected on the road by 2010. As far as the grid, there is enough capacity in off peak hours at night.

    True they're not liable to be armored versions but who knows what will be available by 2012.

    Comment by John — November 8, 2008 @ 9:44 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment




Privacy Policy
| Terms and Conditions
rss

The contents of this site are © 2009 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications Inc.