No Hybrid! Albany OR

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Introduction

Hybrids are Evil.

You heard it here first, and here's why: they cost more money, don't deliver an equal value for all that cash and will keep the filthy little foreign oil rats in business for another 30 years. Hybrids do nothing well but everything okay. That makes about as much sense as diet soda, fat-free ice cream or low-tar cigarettes.

Conservation. Hah - go build a better engine. Less dependence on foreign oil. Yeah - like a heroin junkie can do just a little bit of smack at a time.

If you are seriously considering a hybrid vehicle, wake up and turn off the television. And by the way - if you really want to save a tree -- go ride a bike to work or take a train. Hybrid technology is just a ploy to extend the consumer life of the internal combustion engine and - here's the headline - get us to pay more for less.

Fuel

Hybrid fuel-efficiency is a bedtime story.

The best real-world mileage you can expect from the likes of a Toyota Prius is around 48 mpg, which really isn't all that much better than most decent cars on the road. But let's put this to the test, based on real-world gas mileage. The 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid really gets around 28 miles per gallon combined city and highway, and the regular, comparably equipped V6 manages about 18 miles to the gallon. The difference in cost, assuming 13,000 miles driven at an average of $3 per gallon is about $770 a year, a savings, true -- but not all that remarkable. As hybrids age, the efficiency of their small internal combustion engines - and probably the electric motors - will decline, thus eliminating any return on investment.

Foreign Oil

Hybrids deflect the real issue: hydrogen mobility.

Hybrids still use oil, so therefore they perpetuate its significance. In fact, they make it worse, because with hybrids on the road it now enables automakers to delay switching to hydrogen and allows governments to slow down investment in a hydro infrastructure. As everyone waits for big business to catch up and prepare for the obvious and necessary hydrogen shift, we continue to place our national security at risk by sucking crude out of the Middle East. Hybrids will extend the consumable life of the internal combustion engine, which is essentially 19th century technology, and put the brakes on the development of feasible hydrogen transportation.