Synopses & Reviews
A politically polarized America is coming together over a new kind of car-the plug-in hybrid that will save drivers money, reduce pollution, and increase US security by reducing dependence on imported oil.
Plug-in Hybrids points out that, where hydrogen fuel-cell cars won't be ready for decades, the technology for plug-in hybrids exists today. Unlike conventional hybrid cars that can't run without gasoline, plug-in hybrids use gasoline or cheaper, cleaner, domestic electricity or both. Although plug-in hybrids are not yet for sale, demand for them is widespread, coming from characters across the political spectrum, such as
- Chelsea Sexton, the automotive insider: working for General Motors, Sexton fought attempts to destroy the all-electric EV1 car and describes how car companies are resisting plug-in hybrids and why they'll make them anyway
- Felix Kramer and the tech squad: Kramer started a nonprofit organization using the Internet to tap into a small army of engineers who built the first plug-in Prius hybrids
- R. James Woolsey, former CIA director and national security hawk: seeing the end of oil supplies looming, Woolsey is demanding plug-in hybrids to wean us from petroleum
Cautioning that the oil and auto companies know how to undermine the success of plug-in car programs to protect their interests, the book gives readers tools to ensure that plug-in hybrids get to market-and stay here.
Review
"Sherry Boschert does a great job of showing how shifting to hybrid plug-in cars can sharply reduce gasoline use, dependence on imported oil, and carbon emissions. If we simultaneously build thousands of wind farms across the country, feeding cheap electricity into the grid, we can then run our cars on wind energy and at a gasoline equivalent
price of less than $1 per gallon. What are we waiting for?" Lester R. Brown, President, Earth Policy Institute, and author of Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
Review
"This is an important book. As a historian I was intrigued by the history; as a reader I was charmed by the writing; as a citizen I was outraged by the auto industry's duplicity. If you think your car should get a few more MPG (like 30 more!), plug into Plug-in Hybrids. It will recharge your political batteries." Martin Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize winning author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of
J. Robert Oppenheimer, and professor of history, Tufts University
Review
"An informative, provocative, engaging book about a vital topic, Plug-in Hybrids is an important book for the 21st century." Ocean Robbins, Founder and Director, Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!)
Synopsis
Demand for a new kind of car--the plug-in hybrid--is bridging a divided America.
About the Author
Sherry Boschert has been an award-winning medical news reporter in the San Francisco bureau of International Medical News Group, a division of Elsevier, since 1991. A committed environmentalist, the addition of solar panels to her roof led her to buy an electric car and to co-founding the San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association, of which she is President.