Should government invest in hybrids?

But first, a little humor.

A wind turbine walks into a bar to meet his old college buddy the oil refinery. The turbine arrives, the refinery is sitting alone at the bar, nursing an empty glass. The refinery says: 'I'm out of juice. I can't get no more, I have no money, there's no barman, what are we gonna do?' But the turbine was late because he'd been to the dep, to get some extra beers. When the refinery starts sobbing into its glass, the turbine gets a beer from its bag. The oil refinery was over-joyed: 'Where did you get this?' it said. The turbine shrugged: 'Alternative sources.'

And now back to the subject...

In a study out of UBC, it was found that an important fraction of hybrid car buyers (66%) would have purchased the vehicle whether or not there was any monetary incentive (ie. 1000-2000$ dollar rebate). It was also found that the actual reduction in carbon emissions when going from a fuel efficient vehicle to a hybrid vehicle is not very large. Moreover, climate change works in absolutes, not relatives. Though the relative carbon emissions from the car industry could be reduced if all cars would suddenly become hybrid, if the number of cars keeps increasing, the amount of carbon in the air will also increase (carbon is naturally extracted from the atmosphere via the carbon cycle on timescales that span many centuries....that's why we are working in absolute numbers!).

The solution? Well, if we consider the total cost of the hybrid incentive program last year we end up with 195$ spent per tonne of carbon that was reduced. Instead, the government should invest the money in green energy alternatives which are known to have amounts that range from 3$ to 40$ per tonne of carbon saved.

And we, as citizens, can simply use our cars a little less! Bike to work on sunny days, or take the bus an extra few times a week!

Mathieu