Special Report: 2.8.2010

Posted by Joe Salimando on Saturday, February 06, 2010

POLITICIANS TALK ABOUT THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE

What four of them had to say

By Joe Salimando

The Washington Auto Show took place in late January, and the Electric Drive Transportation Association seized the occasion and venue for its conference & annual meeting. Here's the thing: You might never have heard of EDTA, but it's now 20 years old! I've not heard a lot about it previously, either; it appears to be a creature of the automobile industry.

Yes, them.

What follows below and in the next few blogs covers what I saw and heard at the event.

 

Three Republicans & An Administrator

Incredibly, with the Obama Administration throwing money at electric vehicle makers and The Smart Grid (which is integral to the EV biz, you should know), the EDTA chose to have three Republican politicians speak to its annual meeting. The geniuses at EDTA couldn't find a Democrat to speak?

I also heard from the EPA Administrator -- a Democrat, of course. But she wasn't on the EDTA schedule; she was speaking during "press day" at the Auto Show.

Here's what I heard.

 

Lisa Jackson

I've heard from and spoken with a significant number of EPA people in my career. In the year 1984-89, as Editor of Waste Age magazine, I regularly went to visit the EPA's office (which back then was in, I kid you not, a D.C. shopping mall). I even granted space in the monthly publication for EPA experts (on landfill design!) to fill.

One result: I've paid attention to EPA people ever since. At this point, you might call it a . . . reflex.

Jackson impressed me before she started speaking into a microphone. She walked around the "green" section of the Auto Show -- on press day, remember, it was mostly empty. She looked at alternate-fueled vehicles, including EVs. I realized, of course, that this was one big photo op. By the way, see her bio here.

 

That's the EPA's Lisa Jackson, right in the middle of the shot, facing right, with dark hair.

But she actually did seem to be listening. And: Her official remarks began about 15 minutes late, because she did seem to dwell on the cars, and the people speaking to her. This is new technology, after all; nothing wrong with the EPA chief learning, even in public!

Then Jackson came to the microphone. The content of her presentation could have been given by any attentive person who had ever read about green anything and what the EPA is charged with doing.

The EPA Administrator was obviously picking up information in her "green" auto show floor tour.

Personally, sitting among the other press members, I struggled with this. I held my notebook open, my pen at the ready. Surely, she was going to say something interesting -- perhaps about EVs? Certainly, this obvious stuff she was mouthing was going to be followed by some specifics about EVs, all the money the Obama Administration had thrown at EVs and The Smart Grid, etc.

Nope.

 

Fred Upton, Michigan Congressman

A Republican, Upton was included among three initial speechifiers at the joint opening session of the EDTA conference ("joint" because it was held in collaboration with SAE International). His remarks were nice, because they were short. Short was good, because it was pabulum.

 

Orrin Hatch, Utah Senator

I believe it is a tribute to the decency of the American people that no one has walked up to this person and planted a bullet in his brain. We are, indeed, a tolerant and patient people who believe in the representative republican form of government, no matter what kind of human nightmare it might produce.

Hatch said something unhappy about Obama (he seemed to be wishing aloud that the President was still in the Senate!). Then he recanted, and said he wished Obama nothing but well (this seemed about as sincere as a Steinbrenner rooting for the Red Sox). Next, he found the time to work in an insult to Al Gore ("inventor of the Internet," ha ha ha).

This is the genuine nature of some politicians. It is funny to slam the wooden Gore for claiming to be the father of the Internet. Unfortunately, if you bother to check facts, you discover he neither said that, nor anything like it.

Substance: Hatch's significant remarks covered Gutenberg (dead 500 years) and Henry Ford. On balance, Hatch is for them. As he was mouthing off, I sat there thinking -- "I wonder what Orrin Hatch really thinks about the Voting Rights Act of 1965."

Surprise: Hatch said the word SH*T aloud. In his presentation, into a microphone. I am not kidding. In context, he was telling a (supposedly funny?) story, an historical anecdote about Mormonism. At least one person in the room (Hatch) laughed because it was funny; I believe the rest of us were a bit astounding that SH*T could come out of a Senator's mouth.

 

George Pataki, former NY governor

This guy was NY governor for 12 years; I last lived in that state in 1979, so I have to admit, other than thinking he was a relatively moderate Republican, I didn't (and still don't) know much about him. As it hasn't appeared that moderates are welcome in the Republican Party these days, I am guessing that his political career is over; he's now working for a law firm.

On this day, however, Pataki stepped up to the microphone and delivered a RADICAL speech. He's a gosh-darn left-leaning greenie; I wonder if his birth certificate is legit . . . and that name, isn't it from the original Klingon?

Pataki challenged his audience -- the EDTA crowd, auto execs and utility people -- to get moving, to get to a place where 40% of the cars on the road by 2020 would be EVs.

 

I'm not sure who makes this car, but doncha like the words "Pure Electric" on the door?

I looked around the room as he spoke. I believe he was being discounted and ignored by the attendees even as the words left his mouth. Why? Most of the discussions put the outside limit of where the nation will be by 2020 at 3%. I believe Pataki has heard that same number. I share his sense of urgency (if this is important, let's do it, and do it well, and do it fast . . . if it's not important, why are we talking about it?).

There is a difference, you will note, between 3% and 40%.

Pataki went on to talk about a company that had just raised $300 million (VC money, I think) to do EV stuff in Israel and Denmark. And there's the rub. Why? In much of the developed world -- those 2 countries included -- the price of gasoline is $6 to $8 per gallon. That's much higher than here, right? It's not because they pay more to Arabs and Venezuelans. These countries slap big taxes on gasoline.

Why isn't that being done here? Well, for one thing, you might note that the U.S. has a lot more miles within it than tiny Denmark and narrow Israel. For another thing, the last politician to suggest slapping a tax (I believe it was 50 cents per gallon) on gasoline was Walter Mondale. He ran for President in 1984, and lost 49 states.

I believe heavily taxing gasoline would boost EV sales; in fact, it's probably the logical thing to do. However, you won't even hear a politician suggest this. We won't get it done. And we'll be lucky to get 3% EVs in the U.S. auto fleet by 2020.

 

Be Nice To Your Hosts

As a lawyer these days, Pataki works for a law firm that, he said, has just rolled out an EV-focused practice of some sort. After his radical speech, he was followed to the podium by the vice-chairman of General Motors (a government employee?) and the big cheese at Edison International (parent of Southern California Edison). They yakked briefly from the podium, and then Pataki moderated a "panel" of the two men.

I wondered if Pataki would have the courage of his (expressed) convictions. He didn't. With these two people sitting at his left and right, he could not manage to get the question out of his mouth -- what are you prepared to do to get to 40% EVs by 2020?

That was too bad. I believe the question would have made these two guys extremely uncomfortable. And if the truth were to escape their mouths, it might have been along the lines of -- we'll get to 40% EVs, sure, along about 2070.

More on EVs and EDTA next time.