Bloomberg reports:

Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and other carmakers may cut production costs for hybrid systems by 67 percent over the next decade as shipments rise and companies gain experience, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Gasoline-electric systems on average will cost $1,919 each in 2018, compared with an estimated $5,869 this year as the global market grows 16-fold to 9.6 million units over the same period, the bank said in a report released yesterday.

This is remarkable news, especially when you consider that gasoline prices are all but certain to rise to $5 a gallon and higher over the next decade (see “Will we see $3 gasoline before $5?“).

If hybrids drop in price and gasoline resumes its peak-oil driven upward trend, then by, say 2015, it would simply not make sense to bother producing a non-hybrid version of any vehicle. At the same time, this drop in the price of key hybrid components will mean a drop in the price of key plug-in hybrid components, further accelerating the time at which that core climate solution becomes cost-effective.

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Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s Action Team on Energy and Climate Change has released its remarkable Final Report. It puts the Sunshine State on the same side of the climate issue as that other sunny coastal state ruled by a Republican (see The savings from cutting California’s carbon “outweigh the costs”).

The Action Team finds that an aggressive set of strategies could reduce Florida greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 50% from 2005 levels by 2025 (see figure, click to enlarge).

At the same time, the Team finds these reductions, achieved through some 50 policy recommendations covering every aspect of the economy, would bring large economic and energy savings to the state:

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THIRD UPDATE: Comments will get posted, albeit with a delay. We are still working on this.

SECOND UPDATE: We are still working on this.

UPDATE: The comment problem should be fixed, let me know if you have any problems.

For some reason they are being directed to the spam folder. While my IT folk are figuring it out, please keep commenting, and I will make sure they get posted — yes, this will introduce a delay.

The site is being modified to handle the greater amount of traffic I’ve been getting, and some glitches have been introduced

My apologies.