The NEI Afternoon Clip File

Here are some of the news clips we're reading at NEI this afternoon.

The energy bill, along with a separate highway-construction bill, offers incentives for buying fuel-efficient hybrid cars - including tax breaks, free parking and access to high-occupancy-vehicle lanes even if there's only one person in the car.

The most recent additions are in two major bills currently awaiting President Bush's signature. A bill designed to boost energy production also replaces a federal tax deduction for buying a hybrid with a more generous tax credit that theoretically could total as much at $3,400. A separate highway-construction bill gives states the right to open high-occupancy-vehicle lanes to hybrids even if there's only one person in the car.

The article goes on to note that several state and local governments already offer "sweeteners" to those who drive hybrids. Car manufacturers are responding to the hybrid's growing popularity. Toyota, for instance, plans to introduce 10 more hybrid vehicles in the next decade.

The soaring popularity of hybrids - which use a combination of electrical and gasoline engines to power the wheels - represents an important shift among auto makers. Amid high fuel prices, sales of profitable gas-guzzling sports-utility vehicles have cooled and manufacturers are starting to respond to consumer demand for more efficient vehicles.

Policy makers are eager to spur demand for hybrids because they get good mileage, reduce emissions and cut dependence on foreign oil.

The Standard, China's business newspaper, provides a more in-depth look at Toyota's hybrid-related goals:

Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said the world's No2 carmaker aims by early in the next decade to sell a million hybrid vehicles a year globally. Of that total, 600,000 would be sold in the United States.

"To us, it's not a passing phase but a vital technology for the 21st century," said Press at the annual Center for Automotive Research conference in Traverse City, Michigan.

Toyota was the first automaker to introduce a hybrid vehicle powered by a combination of petrol and electricity.

... "People are buying hybrids for good reasons beyond fuel economy," Press said. "They realize hybrids are a simple way to make an important difference in curtailing foreign-oil dependence, air pollution, and greenhouse gases."

To meet its sales target, Toyota will have to add hybrid engines across its vehicle fleet, including trucks.

... An average SUV will consumer 20 liters of petrol over a 100-kilometer trip. A hybrid will take just 4-5 liters of petrol.

Understandably, General Motors, is eager to start work on its own version of the hybrid, or even a fuel-cell car. Reuters reports that Honda is open to working with GW, which does not currently manufacture hybrid vehicles. Takeo Fukui, Honda's chief executive, said his company leads the industry in fuel-cell vehicles. Honda has also produced a hybrid.

[Fukui] said Honda could share information with GM, and in return benefit from the US giant's knowledge at the political and regulatory levels - useful when it comes to lobbying activities, for instance.

Come back tomorrow morning for more news from the NEI Clip File.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics