National Endorsements of Plug-In Hybrids 2005-2006
Support for plug-in hybrids comes from far and wide -- and left and right in 2005-2006. Download an engaging, one-page PDF of many of these quotes, or view Photos of People who are catching on to PHEVs.| High praise... | From (alphabetically)... |
| "To think that you could pull into your garage at the end of the day and ’fill ’er up’ just by plugging your car into a regular, 110-volt socket in the garage is very appealing." | Judy Biggert U.S. Representative (R-IL) Chair, House Science Subcommittee on Energy |
| "Coming soon are hybrids that can be plugged into a 120-volt outlet to recharge like a cellphone. Add in 'flexible fuel' options...and you could build vehicles that could get -- drum roll, please -- 500 miles per gallon of gasoline. That's not science fiction; that's achievable right now." | Max Boot Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations |
| "A politically polarized America is coming together over plug-in hybrids, which can move us toward a cleaner, safer and more sustainable society." | Sherry Boschert Author, "Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America" (November 2006) |
| "Moving to these highly efficient plug-in gas-electric hybrids could cut U.S. gasoline use by 85%. Even more important, it could cut automobile carbon emissions by some 85%, making the United States a model for other countries." | Lester Brown President, Earth Policy Institute Author, "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble" |
| "I was in a Prius that had been retrofitted [to get] 100 MPG. It's got juiced-up batteries that you plug in at night [...]. They can get 100 miles to the gallon. The owner and developer of it said imagine filling up your car just 5 times a year was the way he was looking at it." | Sam Brownback U.S. Senator (R-KS) |
| "The new technological breakthrough, however, is going to be when we develop batteries that are able to enable an automobile to drive, say, the first 40 miles on electricity alone." | President George W. Bush also see accompanying 20-second video |
| "We believe in plug-in hybrid batteries. It's the wave of the future." | President George W. Bush |
| "...if [car-makers] had been listening over the last couple of years, they'd know that customers today want and are interested in hybrid electric vehicles. And with this partnership, the customers of tomorrow will be demanding very soon -- tomorrow -- plug-in hybrid electric vehicles." | Kateri Callahan President, Alliance to Save Energy |
| "The next step is hybrid plug-ins, enabling drivers to use household electricity to recharge car batteries at night. I saw some of these. They were on display on Capitol Hill. You can drive 100 miles or more for every gallon of fuel you put in the tank." | Hillary Clinton U.S. Senator (D-NY) |
| "Plug in hybrids are a really big deal. They are practical, profitable and urgently needed." | John Doerr Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| "I don't think you can say too much about the impact on our national security. Plug-in hybrids would probably make as much difference as any weapons we can come up with." | S. David Freeman Former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Sacramento Municipal Utility District |
| "In fifteen years, that would be my dream for America. That will not only be a cleaner world [...], it will be a safer world -- if everyone is driving a plug-in hybrid car that runs on flex-fuels." | Thomas Friedman New York Times Columnist Author, "The World is Flat" |
| "We have nothing to announce today, but yes we are very keenly looking at (plug-in hybrids), and working with that technology.." | Bill Ford Chairman and CEO, Ford Motor Company |
| "...there are already some solutions that seem to stand out as particularly promising [...] We could further increase the value and efficiency of a distributed energy network by retooling our failing auto giants - GM and Ford - to require and assist them in switching to the manufacture of flex-fuel, plug-in, hybrid vehicles...." | Al Gore Former Vice-President |
| "[Plug-ins are inevitable and will happen] when gas gets to 'X' dollars a gallon." | Alan Greenspan Former Federal Reserve Chairman |
| "The plug-in hybrid approach, as being pursued by CalCars, seems to be our best bet for controlling vehicle CO2 emissions in the near-term." | Dr. James Hansen NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies |
| "We may very well be able to produce a silver bullet for our nation's transportation and environmental needs. [...] no solution holds more short term promise than plug-in hybrids." | Orrin Hatch U.S. Senator (R-UT) |
| "We should have a national program to promote plug-in hybrid cars running on electricity and biofuels. [...] I'm happy that initiatives are coming from entrepreneurial groups like CalCars.org and from state and local campaigns." | Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Sr. Attorney, National Resources Defense Council Professor, author & radio host |
| "Unlike in the 1970s, today only 2% of U.S. electricity is generated from oil, so plug in hybrids enable the transportation sector to tap into the array of vast domestic and much easier to secure energy resources which power our grid, and thus can increase vehicle fuel choice and greatly reduce our dependence on hostile suppliers of oil." | Anne Korin Chair, Set America Free Coalition Co-Director, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security |
| "Plug-in hybrid vehicles are important as a path to a renewably powered future. I welcome CalCars' work on the technical and the advocacy sides in bringing these vehicles to market." | William McDonough Sustainability Advisor to Ford Motor Company Acclaimed designer/architect Author, "Cradle To Cradle" |
| "There are no silver bullets in the fight against global warming--but the prospect of a plug-in hybrid is pretty darn shiny." | Bill McKibben Former New Yorker staff writer, author of "The End of Nature," and the forthcoming "Deep Economy: The Weatlh of Communities and the Durable Future," founder Step It Up. |
| "Here's my suggestion. Keep the [Ford] St. Paul plant open and make hybrid trucks. And make them 'plug-in' hybrids, allowing them to connect to the electrical grid system. Finally, make it a flexible-fuel vehicle, capable of operating not only on electricity but on any combination of gasoline and ethanol." | David Morris Vice-President, Institute for Local Self-Reliance |
| "When it becomes possible in the coming years, we should make sure that every government car is a plug-in hybrid." | Barack Obama U.S. Senator (D-IL) |
| "I will propose a plan to jumpstart a new era of statewide availability and use of renewable fuels...It will spur the development of efficient hybrid vehicles that can actually be plugged in at home. " | George Pataki Governor, NY |
| "[Plug-ins would be able to...] conserve more oil and slice smog and greenhouse gases to nearly imperceptible levels." | Jim Press President, Toyota North America |
| "People are always asking me what is the green car of the future. I did run the Department of Energy program responsible for all clean car research, development, demonstration and deployment, and I can safely say that the flexible-fuel, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is the most environmentally desirable and practical alternative fuel vehicle yet conceived." | Joseph Romm Founder, Center for Energy and Climate Solutions Author, "The Hype About Hydrogen" |
| "But I think the real payoff will come when you have a battery that can go in the hybrid car that is chargeable and which can carry that car for, say, 40 miles." | George Shultz Former U.S. Secretary of State |
| "For a plug-in hybrid, we need a bigger battery and, yes, there is an infrastructure investment: an extension cord. Each family would need an extension cord.... I call this a coalition between the tree-huggers, the do-gooders, the sod-busters, the cheap hawks, and the evangelicals." | R. James Woolsey Former CIA Director |
For our archive of previous endorsements, see Early Endorsements.
