Latest Senate energy bill - Pickens Plan is in, climate change is out

Reid's move insures that Pickens is a step closer to getting a return on his enormous investment ($60M and counting) in promoting natural gas as a transportation fuel.

Harry Reid's Energy Fiasco - HUMAN EVENTS

“They didn’t have anywhere close to 60 votes for Obama’s cap-and-trade tax,” said a Senate Republican aide. “But they are still saying they want to debate it in September. We can’t wait for that debate.”

Dorgan gives push to electric cars

Electric cars could be to Dorgan as the Internet is to Al Gore. He may not have invented it, but in a couple of decades, he may well be saying “You’re welcome, America.”

A Brief History Of the Electric Car - TIME

There was indeed a time when electric cars were useful and relatively popular. Back when cars were used mostly for short jaunts around town or for deliveries between two nearby points, the charging of an electric car posed very little problem. In the 1830s, when Dutch inventor Sibrandus Stratingh created an electromagnetic cart, the vehicles have always stood out as a cleaner, cost-effective option to the steam or internal combustion engine. From Stratingh's invention evolved actual cars in the late 1800s that could move at low speeds using rechargeable batteries. Quieter and less noxious than their gas-powered counterparts, these electric cars surpassed them in popularity in the early part of the 20th century. One of the best-selling vehicles of that time was the Columbia Runabout, which could go 40 miles on a single charge and run at speeds up to 15 m.p.h.

Later incarnations of the electric car, such as the Detroit Electric, were more attractive than gas-powered versions because they didn't backfire. Before her husband Henry's mass production of gas-powered cars crushed the electric industry, Clara Ford drove a 1914 Detroit Electric, which could last 80 miles without a charge.

The electric-car industry peetered out during the Roaring 20s when owning a car became more of a convenience and less of a luxury.