Lawmakers plug Austin idea

By Coral Davenport
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Thursday, May 18, 2006

WASHINGTON — Austin’s willingness to embrace plug-in hybrid cars appeared to earn some traction Wednesday on Capitol Hill, with Texans hoping the technology will spread across the country.

A campaign by the Austin City Council to promote hybrid cars that run primarily on electric batteries — which are recharged by being plugged in to a wall socket — gained momentum when U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, announced that he plans to introduce a booster measure later this week.

After a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday on legislation to promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, takes the wheel of a Toyota before a battery of onlookers. The bill would put $250 million a year for nine years in research and development, with $50 million a year going to a pilot fleet.

The bill would give $250 million a year from 2007 until 2016 for research and development of plug-in hybrid vehicles. Of that annual amount, $50 million would be used to build a pilot demonstration fleet.

“Austin is setting an example for the rest of the nation through its support of plug-in hybrid cars,” said Smith in a statement to a House energy subcommittee. “This legislation allows Austin and other cities across the nation to take advantage of plug-in hybrid technology.”

Smith then trooped out with a group of lawmakers, including Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, to test drive a pair of the plug-in cars around Capitol Hill.

Smith’s proposed bill drew strong bipartisan support in the subcommittee meeting, echoing a trend throughout Washington: With gas prices at $3 a gallon, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are increasingly agreeing to support a variety of alternative energy options.

“There is nothing like $3-a-gallon gasoline to get us thinking about creative ways to diversify the fuel supply and use anything besides gasoline to power our vehicles,” said subcommittee chairwoman Judy Biggert, R-Ill. “I’d buy a plug-in hybrid if they were available today.”

Unlike alternative fuels such as ethanol, though, plug-in hybrids wouldn’t require new infrastructure because the cars would be able to use the existing power grid.

The estimated costs of fueling a car with a rechargeable battery also appealed to some lawmakers.

Experts said it could cost 2 cents a mile to travel in a plug-in hybrid, which would equal about 62 cents a “gallon” of fuel, compared with about 12 cents a mile to travel in a conventional car, assuming gas is $3 a gallon.

“If a politician stood here and promised 62-cents-a-gallon gas, you’d think they were smoking some of my state’s medical marijuana,” said Brad Sherman, D-Calif. “But this can happen.”

John German, an analyst for Honda’s product regulator office, said the chief obstacles to getting plug-in cars on the road are improving the batteries, which now weigh a hefty 1,000 pounds and break down after 90,000 miles.

Other experts said the funding for research in Smith’s bill could help solve these problems.

Roger Duncan, deputy general manager of Austin Energy and head of Austin’s “Plug-In Partners” campaign, said the biggest obstacles to getting plug-in cars on the market are industry inertia and a lack of awareness about the cars.

“I believe the battery issues can be easily addressed by the research and development funding. Almost all our partners ask me the same question: Where can I get one? And this is the one place where I think the proposed legislation will be very helpful,” Duncan said.