Nissan going Electric

Nissan is becoming the first foreign automaker to Headquarter in the South.  Tennessee will be the new home of their $100 million headquarters.  Nissan says that it’s future on the road is “electric.”  They predict the first all electric models will arrive in the U.S. in 2010.  Nissan and it’s partner, Renault are “focused on making zero emisson electric vehicles.”  Big news.

In my area of Portland, Oregon the politicians are trying to get people to drive less.  They are even so bold as to call cars and vehicles using fossil fuels “evil.”  They are intentionally not improving the local road systems, to force people out of their cars. 

What bothers me the most is that these politicians have no concept of the working class’ needs.  It’s fine to take public transportation, walk or bike to and from work if you work downtown in an office.  But many of us make our living as Realtors (who need to drive clients around daily), Construction workers (who need to haul equipment and tools around daily), Suppliers, machine operators, etc.  Not to mention truckers, delivery people, transporters, etc.  Public transportation, bikes and walking are all USELESS means of transportation for these people.  It’s great to be focused on being “green” and environmentally friendly, but I think a lot of these politicians are completely in the dark when it comes to how the world really works.  Clueless. 

So the big discussion is about a proposed $2 billion dollar bridge to replace the current Interstate 5 bridge between Oregon and Washington.  The new bridge has the same amount of traffic lanes, and doesn’t increase capacity.  What???  How is that helping the congestion problem?  It’s not.   What does the local political leadership say about it?  “Drive less.  We are doing everything we can to discourage people from using fossil fuels.”  That’s just great.  Hey, if you work in an air conditioned office downtown, what do you care about everyone who actually has to travel and haul people and equipment daily for work?  Apparantly they don’t care much at all.