The Political Front
As is true with many environmental issues, politics
will play a crucial role in determining the future prominence of
alternative vehicle technologies and the course of the automobile
industry. To stimulate incorporation of hybrid and electric cars
into the American marketplace, federal and state governments have
established tax incentives for consumers and programs encouraging
cooperation between federal and private groups. Perhaps the best
example of a state program is California's ZEV program. In 1990
California committed to increasing the fraction of its vehicles
that qualify as ZEVs in increments by certain fixed deadlines. Since
then Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, and New York have adopted similar
programs. Also, in May 2002 the IRS extended tax deductions for
owners of electric cars to include owners of hybrid cars as well. These
deductions are scheduled to phase out after 2007, but should still
ease public acceptance of hybrid and electric cars.
Programs like FreedomCAR and the California Fuel Cell Partnership
promote fuel cell cars. FreedomCAR is a joint research effort
between the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Council for
Automotive Research. These two groups encourage research into
environmentally helpful vehicle technologies such as fuel cells.
Picture courtesy of http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fuelcell.shtml
The California Fuel Cell Partnership consists of auto manufacturers,
fuel cell technology companies, and government agencies that cooperate
to stimulate commercialization of fuel cell cars and to improve
the public image of these cars.
Aside from emissions control, another
major issue for the future of automobiles is the United
States' dependence on foreign imported oil. As
the graph below shows, both total oil use and use of imported oil
are higher than ever in the U.S. 
Picture courtesy of http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/oildep.shtml
The OPEC oil cartel controls between 65% and 75% of the world's
oil reserves, and reliance on the cartel makes dependence on imported
oil an issue of serious economic and political significance. Currently
oil provides 95% of the energy used for transportation in the U.S. Unless
automobiles begin using alternatives to traditional gasoline fuel
or improve dramatically in efficiency, the need for oil could cause
serious damage to the future national economy. The desire to avoid
such a calamity provides a non-environmental motivation for embracing
technologies such as hybrid and electric cars.
Sources:
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/advanced_vehicles/page.cfm?pageID=206
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/advanced_vehicles/page.cfm?pageID=205
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020625/4219930s.htm
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fuelcell.shtml
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/oildep.shtml
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