Fisker Automotive is taking orders for its $80,000 (only $1,000 down!) “4-door plug-in hybrid sports sedan” (click on pic for high-res image):

The specs released so far are:

Performance details for the first car are impressive achieving 50 miles (80 kilometers) on a pure electric charge [sic]. Additionally, by further utilizing a gasoline or diesel engine offered by Fisker, one can extend the total range of their Fisker to more than 620 miles (1000 kilometers). The first Fisker will also deliver an extraordinary 100 miles per gallon – performance figures that will ultimately help to reduce the need for the importation of foreign oil.

Delivery will be in 2010, unless you drop $100,000 — and heck, it’s only $5,000 down — for one of the first 100 in the “Signature edition.” Then you’ll get it in Q4, 2009, “with exclusive show car package (final details to be revealed after Detroit launch, Jan. 2008).”
The Customer Registration Form is here.

Tip o’ the hat to Plug-in Partners, whose post on the car also discusses some other plug ins that may soon be in showrooms around the globe.

[Note to readers (and concerned CAPAF legal eagles): This blog post should not be taken as an endorsement of any product or company, particularly one that has not offered me a discount or even a test drive -- hint, hint.]

OK — maybe it is a good thing that the morally-challenged Senator is on the other side of the debate. He recently said:

My position is perfectly clear: a cap and trade system is obsolete in its approach to green house gas reductions, it has not worked, and I do not see it working.

Yes a very good position for a delayer, since a carbon tax is a political nonstarter (and dubious for other reasons), while a technology-only strategy can’t do the job.

This is not, however, an especially new position for the conservative senator. Back in 1998, he said:

As more and more American scientists review the available data on global warming, it is becoming increasingly clear that the vast majority believe the commitments for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions made by the administration in the Kyoto Protocol are an unnecessary response to an exaggerated threat the vice president himself [i.e., Al Gore] is caught up in making.

Craig isn’t going to win a Nobel prize for prognostication….

Some good energy news:

US wind power installations are projected to jump 63 percent this year amid concern about global warming and rising fuel prices, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The US wind industry is on track to complete a total of 4,000 megawatts worth of installations in 2007, or about enough to power 1 million average homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association [AWEA].

Tip o’ the hat to state renewable energy standards and the federal production tax credit.

You can get more details from the AWEA website, including the third quarter market report. Here are some state highlights:

Read more

The New York Times has had an India theme this week:

1. The Dawn of E2K in India – Thomas Friedman op-ed. “E2K stands, in my mind, for all the energy programming and monitoring that thousands of global companies are going to be undertaking in the early 21st century to either become carbon neutral or far more energy efficient than they are today. India is poised to get a lot of this work….

So, mom, dad, tell your kids: if they’re looking for a good stable-growth career — green consultants, green designers, green builders are all going to be in huge demand. And if they can speak a little Hindi — all the better.

2. New Delhi Air Quality Is Worsening, Group Says: “Air quality in New Delhi has deteriorated significantly in the past two years, exposing the capital’s residents to heightened risk of a range of respiratory diseases, a leading environmental research group warned Tuesday.” Looks like India is joining China in being a victim of its own coal-fueled growth.

3. And this story, “Cuts Urged in China’s and India’s Energy Growth,” discussed here.