The influence of PHEV on politics

The upcoming US presidential elections feature a fierce battle between the three main candidates with vehement discourses on the future of big oil companies, alternative ways of producing energy and the greenhouse effect. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has set the issue of foreign oil dependence top list of her electoral agenda. Stating that the price of fuel has nearly doubled during the two George W. Bush mandates, she offers a clear plan of increasing the fuel efficiency in the United States. Hillary's plan consists of introducing a new tax on big oil companies in order to raise funds and make them available for research and development of renewable energy, cost-effective and cleaner ways of transport. Her intentions currently rely on the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, or PHEV and supporting people that are interested in purchasing them with tax credits up to ten thousand dollars. Also, Hillary declared that investments will be made in developing new battery technologies that will increase their durability over time.

Other plans consist in equipping over 100.000 vehicles of the federal fleet with PHEV technology in the following years. These measures will have the effect of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and the fuel consumption to the incredible value of almost 100 miles per gallon. Although hybrid vehicles have a production cost that is higher than regular ones, Hillary is convinced that the difference will reduce if they are going to be mass produced and also receive federal subventions. She stated that, by implementing all these measures, in just a decade fuel consumption savings will reach 100 billion dollars annually and carbon dioxide emissions will drop by 500 million metric tons. Currently, Hillary Clinton is exploiting a very stringent aspect for the American people, one that is being ignored by the other two main candidates. Making the independence on foreign oil and lowering pollution top of her agenda, Hillary will definitely attract a lot of voters on her side and benefit from a sympathy wave as she is the first important political figure to think of these problems the world has.