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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Chevy Volt, Secretary Chu and Finding Another Outlet


Yikes! I just saw Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu get grilled at Congress. If you ever receive an invitation to chat with congress at their house...run for your life!!
The memo didn't get to Secretary Chu. And all I can say is yikes!

I did learn a great deal about the Chevy Volt....one Secretary Chu doesn't have one. But he would like for me to have one (thank you) but he doesn't have one. But no flies on him, he doesn't have a car at all. So from what I could tell his remedy for high gas prices is the vaunted Chevy Volt....an electric car. Now don't get me wrong I would love to just unplug my rollers and plug in my car. That 60 to 70 dollar a week gas bill - and going up - is killing us. But I want Secretary Chu to understand that as a mother I have been using that line of reasoning since my kids were little. For me it didn't matter what it was that we couldn't have or get or afford, we simply made whatever that was.....uncool. So who needs expensive shoes when you can go to Payless? Who needs a horse when you have a dog? Who needs to stay in a great hotel when you can camp? Who needs Disneyland when you can pop a quarter in the stuffed animal crane game at Wal-Mart?

See Secretary Chu I am on to you.....who needs to buy gas if you have a Chevy volt? Just plug it in, and the transportation problem is solved. Fabulous!! Because we all know that when demand goes down so will the price. Except that isn't how this works. Demand has gone down...and the price goes up.

The message Secretary Che wanted us to get was....Buy a Chevy Volt, and you won't care how high the gas price will go!!

But it might be problematic on a different level, while I could cram my considerable derriere into that tiny little car (I am still iffy on the $40,000 price tag...but hey if Al Gore can drive one around so could I)...I am not so sure how the volt is going to transport my pop tarts here from California...or a load of lumber for Home Depot.....Mayflower moving vans will have to trade in one big truck for 2,000 Chevy volts huffing and puffing up the hill with one families belongings....one long extension cord hanging out the back of the last one....but, dang it all, we are still going to have a gas problem that the volt cannot solve.

Sorry Secretary Chu my kids didn't buy it when I tried to use that logic. We may have to fix the problem instead of wishing real hard that it doesn't exist. And Chevy may have to put that darn little car back into production in order for us to even buy it....and figure out why it has a tendency to burst into flames.

Just sayin'

4 comments:

  1. One of my vendors has one. He loves his but the Volt only goes 45 miles on a charge. The rest of the time it runs on gas.

    It take the same amount of energy to move the thing whether it be gas or electricity. You pay for it at the pump or at the plug. If they all plug in we will need lots of charging stations and more power plants. Coal, Gas fired, or Nuclear, pick your poison.

    They need to work on beaming people and things place to place.

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  2. I'm with'ya. I mean when you figure that it will take AT LEAST seven years, just to recoup the extra cost on the purchase of the darned thing .... well, I just don't know that saving ten or even twenty a week at the gas pump is going to make it worth it.

    First of all, we may not live the whole seven years, and then THAT whole logic / purchase is dust. Secondly, .... well, you get my drift. Good idea in theory, but more than a little iffy in reality.
    Have a good one - Marsha

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  3. I can't figure out how they think they're fooling all of us with this bogus logic. It stands to reason that if we all had $40K to plunk down on a car (that they're not even making anymore), that high gas prices wouldn't be that big a deal. Oh, and while you're at it, just move closer to your work so you can walk or ride your bike. Simple enough, right?

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