Bailout? What Happened To The PNGV Efficient Vehicles?

With the disgraced Detroit three automakers getting $17.4 billion of our taxpayer dollars in loans, thanks to the disastrous George Bush, we should remember the last several billion that we gave the industry, and the outcome of it. In the 1990s, the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles worked to make 80-plus miles per gallon cars and allowed for communications amongst scientists between the big three auto makers to help speed that process along.

The Partnership was a huge success, with three 70-plus miles per gallon prototypes. General Motors had the Precept, a five-seat sedan with ample trunk space, with one version getting 108 miles per gallon equivalent running on hydrogen. Ford had the Prodigy getting 72 miles per gallon, and Daimler-Chrysler also had a 72-miles-per gallon vehicle. Taxpayers were proud that their billions were not wasted, and expected these vehicles on the market.

But none of the automakers put any of these vehicles into production, or anything similar. Instead, they chose gas-guzzling SUVs, the epitome of stupidity from a climate change and energy conservation perspective. Using slick ads to push their behemoth vehicles, the auto makers are among the biggest culprits in the fast rise in greenhouse gas emissions in the Untied States.

What happened to the efficient vehicles? The failure to incorporate that technology was also a major cause of our economic collapse. With the rise in gas prices this past summer, the values of SUV