Who Killed Electric Cars? Or how we could have reduced depencency on foreign oil in the seventies....

Ain't that Hybrid Prius a wicked cool thang? I mean the idea of marrying a gas engine to an electric engine, thereby giving tremendous gas mileage, golly. Who would have thought of that? Actually a few people I guess. Here is an article from Mother Earth News published in 1979. A converted Opel GT was able to get 75 mpg. Simply put, the guy merged some lead-acid batteries, a lawnmower engine and an electric motor from a jet engine, all using technology available since the 1940's and voila. And before that? The Electric Hybrid Buick Skylark built in 1974 by Victor Wouk. Get this, in the 70's, you may recall, there was a gas crisis of sorts and everyone got all hot about saving gas and energy in general. The Feds came up with a research program that was supposed to help jumpstart companies making alternative fuel vehicles. It was called the Federal Clean Car Incentive program. This was before assholes like Ronald Reagan eviscerated federal programs that actually worked. Wouk developed the Hybrid. Their plan got 30k from the FCCIP to build their car. For some reason I don't understand the EPA had a thumbs up or down on the project. I suppose in order to go to the next stage of support and help via the FCCIP. Anyway, the guy running things, a man named Erik Stork, decided he didn't like hybrids and that the Wouk Hybrid would not get approval under any circumstances. Ain't that great? One guy ruined it all. Fully 30 years (give or take) before the Toyota Prius we could have had a Hybrid on the road here in the U.S. using our cars, our technology and our manufacturing. Yeah private enterprise and the market is a wonderful thing isn't it? So the next time you are wondering why the hell we didn't think of these things, we did! A guy named Erik Stork shot it down. I am guessing he was a solid republican.