I think it is fair to say that Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney is not feeling the love for electric cars (even though he once did). The Romney/Ryan Energy Dependence Plan calls for more drilling, fewer regulations, and eliminating green energy subsidies, but not oil subsidies.
Yet there is one man on Romney’s advisory board pushing for electric vehicles. Can he help sway the candidate’s views on electric vehicles?
To answer that question; no. Candidate Romney has swung hard to the right on every issue, including electric vehicles. Romney has called the Chevy Volt “an idea whose time has not come,” though he once said that “plug-in cars may be a way of reducing our emissons.” Hardly a ringing endorsement of EVs, and so close to the election, Candidate Romney probably doesn’t want to back track on any big issues, like Obamacare.
But an Inside Climate News story reports that Romney senior advisor Dan Senor, who wrote “Start-Up Nation: The Story Of Israel’s Economic Miracle” is a big advocate of electric vehicles. Senor, a lifelong Republican, has been advising Romney since 2006. Among the issues nearest to Senor are electric vehicles, which he believes vital to both economic interests and national security.
Senor highlights the Palo Alto, California-based Project Better Place, which is setting up battery-swapping stations all across Israel. The small Jewish state is surrounded by hostile oil-producing countries. It is not hard to conceive of a situation where Israel suddenly finds itself cut off from its supply of oil and gasoline. For them, EVs are vital to their future as a standalone state.
Whether or not Romney might swing back to the left on electric cars and other alternative fuels as a President, who knows? The man has been on every side of every issue. I couldn’t tell you what he has planned if he actually bumbles his way into the Oval Office. He could make good on his threats, cutting off funding for EV projects and propping up the oil industry. Or he could do an about-face, and decide that electric vehicles are worth supporting after all.
One thing I can tell you is that Dan Senor has his work cut out for him convincing Romney and the GOP that electric cars are a good idea.
Source: Inside Climate News
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About Christopher DeMorro
