Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Sometimes politicians make big promises just to get into office, after which they develop an expedient form of amnesia that targets campaign promises. President Obama has already demonstrated that he is not one of those politicians. Environmental issues is only one of the many areas where he is making good on his promises and taking great strides in working towards a healthier America as well as a healthier planet. Included in The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is $80 billion earmarked to fund promotion of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and cars with better gas mileage.

It's about time. I have been wondering for years now how Honda could make my Civic, which gets nearly fifty miles to the gallon on the highway, in 1995, but no one else could do it, and then even Honda traded the 92-95 fuel-efficient models for a heavier one that was LESS efficient, beginning in 1996. Why did they do that? And why could no one reproduce an energy-efficient car along the same lines as this earlier model, which was being manufactured more than fifteen years ago? Yes, Honda is leading the way with greener technologies with their hybrids, but even there, I haven't seen a car with better highway mileage than mine, which is why I'm still driving my 1995 Honda Civic in 2009. It didn't make good ecological or economical sense to trade it in for a less efficient model. So I'm truly delighted to see that cars with better gas mileage are part of the plan.

Now that the United States has a President who is able to look into the future and see the need for drastic changes in the way we do things, we are beginning to see things change for the better in regards to the environment. A report by the Sierra Club gives a breakdown on where that $80 billion is to be directed specifically:

* $25 billion for energy efficiency
* $20 billion for renewable energy incentives
* $11 billion in grants and $6 billion in loans to modernize the electric grid and increase its capacity to deliver power generated by renewable sources
* $17.7 billion for mass transit, Amtrak, and high-speed rail.

For further information, click on the link below.

http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=92921.0&dlv_id=80042

Editor of AGNADL