A Law was passed in 2004 in order to encourage people to buy hybrid cars.  The goal was to give out the CARB stickers to any hybrid that got a fuel economy rating of 45 MPG combined or more.  Well that pretty much limited the cars to the Toyota Prius and the first generation Honda Insight.  The California Air Resources Board (CARB) gave out 85,000 of these stickers for Hybrid, Natural Gas, and electric powered cars.  Cars that have this sticker can fetch a higher resale price.  I would gladly spend up to $2000 more since the savings in time spent on the freeway would be huge.

Fast forward to the year 2008 and the program had been extended a few more years.  But still the only cars with these stickers were mostly Toyota Prius’ with a few Honda Hybrids like the: Insight and Civic.  Honda has the only Natural Gas vehicle on the road so these cars also got a white form of the carpool lane sticker.  This created some public outcry as other automobile owners with super fuel efficient cars were shut out of the program.  The Volkswagen Jetta TDi is a turbo diesel car that not only nets great MPG, but it has been named Green Car of the Year.  Ford has a great fuel efficient car with the new Ford Fusion Hybrid.  Likewise Saturn and other manufacturers have hybrid cars in their stable.  But since no more stickers were handed out after 2007; none of these new cars and hybrids are eligible.

New legislation is making its rounds that will give carpool lane exemption to new electric vehicles like the Fisker Karma or the Chevrolet Volt, natural gas automobiles, or those powered by other means of alternative fuel like hydrogen.  Hybrids may once again make this list if they are the plug-in type or if they net a more stringent highway fuel economy of 65 MPG or more.

source:http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/28/business/fi-hybrid-stickers28

Since Space the Final Frontier has been conquered…might as well solve the gas crisis.  Damn….why did I skip Auto Shop Class!  I could be rich…..maybe not….you can bet that the big auto makers are already on the case.  The Announcement was made at the New York International Auto Show a few months back.  And even the Mayor Bloomberg gave his 2 cents on the prize:  “Development of a super-efficient car would be a major step forward in the fight against global warming – and it would help us reach our goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in New York City by 30 percent by 2030.” Please…..by 2030 we are going to be oil free.

It always seems like America is a little behind the times.  Why shoot for 100 MPG….that seems easily within reach.  I mean we already have Electric cars, Vegetable Oil powered cars, and so on running around.  And a plug in Hybrid can already achieve close to those numbers.  Gas is a thing of the past!  In 2009 a cross-country race will determine the winner of the Progressive Automotive X Prize.  Check out their website for more info. http://www.xprize.org/x-prizes/automotive-x-prize