News Link is a collection of news stories that should be seen more
often in the main stream news, but is not.
These stories are selected for people that are concerned about the
direction our government and our nation is going.
often in the main stream news, but is not.
These stories are selected for people that are concerned about the
direction our government and our nation is going.
Activists protest
Ford's recall of
electrical vehicles
By Associated Press
SACRAMENTO - Drivers of two
electric-powered Ford Ranger pickup
trucks have vowed to remain at a
Capitol-area Ford dealer until the Ford
Motor Company allows them to buy their
leased vehicles rather than turn them in to
be scrapped.
The California drivers said their 1999
pickups require no fuel, cost almost
nothing to maintain and spare the nation
from dependence on foreign oil. But Ford
wants the vehicles back, they said, and
plans to destroy them.
"I'm really proud of the fact that I drive a
vehicle that doesn't have a tailpipe," said
Heather Bernifkoff-Raboy, 34, a health
care worker from Mariposa County.
Bernifkoff-Raboy, and her husband,
David, 33, said they've leased the electric
truck for $490 a month from Ford since
2000, using it to haul hay, rock and
supplies for their 160-acre Catheys Valley
Ranch.
But the Ford Ranger pickup and another
leased by William Korthof, 27, of
Pomona, are caught in an old skirmish
between California regulators, clean air
activists and American automakers over
the future of cleaner-burning cars.
The Rangers are among about 1,500
leased by Ford during the late 1900s to
comply with requirements that 5 percent
of cars sold in California by 2001 have
zero emissions. But the requirement has
since been suspended due to a lawsuit by
automakers, and Ford says it's now
shifting to hybrid vehicles powered by
electricity and gasoline.
With the leases expired, it's calling in the
electric pickup trucks.
"I think we've moved on from electric
vehicles and our focus is more on
hybrids," Ford spokesman Oscar Suris
said on Saturday. "Just look at the
customer reaction. They're much more
popular than the electric vehicles."
The holiday weekend's small protest is
part of a series of "Jumpstart Ford"
demonstrations at Ford dealers nationally
and in Canada where activists call
attention to Ford's fuel economy, which
they call worst among the nation's
carmakers.
Saturday's event featured the San
Francisco-based Rainforest Action
Network and Global Exchange, along with
local groups and an elected director of the
city's locally owned utility, the
Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
"People love these cars. I'm disappointed
that car makers are withdrawing these
vehicles," said Peter Keat, who said
SMUD uses electric vehicles in its fleet.
Korthof says he leased his electric Ranger
pickup for $489 a month to haul supplies
for his solar power installation company.
He said it's required almost no
maintenance.
"This is a good idea," he said. "We need
vehicles that don't use any gasoline at all."
Suris said Ford is building 20,000 Escape
hybrid sport utility vehicles this year and
plans to manufacture five hybrid models
within three years.
Ford's recall of
electrical vehicles
By Associated Press
SACRAMENTO - Drivers of two
electric-powered Ford Ranger pickup
trucks have vowed to remain at a
Capitol-area Ford dealer until the Ford
Motor Company allows them to buy their
leased vehicles rather than turn them in to
be scrapped.
The California drivers said their 1999
pickups require no fuel, cost almost
nothing to maintain and spare the nation
from dependence on foreign oil. But Ford
wants the vehicles back, they said, and
plans to destroy them.
"I'm really proud of the fact that I drive a
vehicle that doesn't have a tailpipe," said
Heather Bernifkoff-Raboy, 34, a health
care worker from Mariposa County.
Bernifkoff-Raboy, and her husband,
David, 33, said they've leased the electric
truck for $490 a month from Ford since
2000, using it to haul hay, rock and
supplies for their 160-acre Catheys Valley
Ranch.
But the Ford Ranger pickup and another
leased by William Korthof, 27, of
Pomona, are caught in an old skirmish
between California regulators, clean air
activists and American automakers over
the future of cleaner-burning cars.
The Rangers are among about 1,500
leased by Ford during the late 1900s to
comply with requirements that 5 percent
of cars sold in California by 2001 have
zero emissions. But the requirement has
since been suspended due to a lawsuit by
automakers, and Ford says it's now
shifting to hybrid vehicles powered by
electricity and gasoline.
With the leases expired, it's calling in the
electric pickup trucks.
"I think we've moved on from electric
vehicles and our focus is more on
hybrids," Ford spokesman Oscar Suris
said on Saturday. "Just look at the
customer reaction. They're much more
popular than the electric vehicles."
The holiday weekend's small protest is
part of a series of "Jumpstart Ford"
demonstrations at Ford dealers nationally
and in Canada where activists call
attention to Ford's fuel economy, which
they call worst among the nation's
carmakers.
Saturday's event featured the San
Francisco-based Rainforest Action
Network and Global Exchange, along with
local groups and an elected director of the
city's locally owned utility, the
Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
"People love these cars. I'm disappointed
that car makers are withdrawing these
vehicles," said Peter Keat, who said
SMUD uses electric vehicles in its fleet.
Korthof says he leased his electric Ranger
pickup for $489 a month to haul supplies
for his solar power installation company.
He said it's required almost no
maintenance.
"This is a good idea," he said. "We need
vehicles that don't use any gasoline at all."
Suris said Ford is building 20,000 Escape
hybrid sport utility vehicles this year and
plans to manufacture five hybrid models
within three years.
Taxing By The Mile
Drivers will get charged for how many miles
they use the roads, and it's as simple as
that."
David Kim,
engineer
(CBS) College student Jayson Just
commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000
miles a month. As CBS News
Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his
monthly gas bill once topped his car
payment.
"I was paying about $500 a month," says
Jayson Just.
So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and
said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW.
And what kind of mileage does he get?
"The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on
the highway," says Just.
And that saves him almost $300 a month in
gas. It's great for Just but bad for the roads
he's driving on, because he also pays a lot
less in gasoline taxes which fund highway
projects and road repairs. As more and
more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped
states are warning of rough roads ahead.
Officials in car-clogged California are so
worried they may be considering a
replacement for the gas tax altogether,
replacing it with something called "tax by
the mile."
Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring
Oregon has already started road testing the
idea.
"Drivers will get charged for how many
miles they use the roads, and it's as simple
as that," says engineer David Kim.
Kim and fellow researcher David Porter at
Oregon State University equipped a test car
with a global positioning device to keep
track of its mileage. Eventually, every car
would need one.
"So, if you drive 10 miles you will pay a
certain fee which will be, let's say, one tenth
of what someone pays if they drive 100
miles," says Kim.
The new tax would be charged each time
you fill up. A computer inside the gas pump
would communicate with your car's
odometer to calculate how much you owe.
The system could also track how often you
drive during rush hour and charge higher
fees to discourage peak use. That's an idea
that could break the bottleneck on
California's freeways.
"We're getting a lot of interest from other
states," says Jim Whitty of the Oregon
Department of Transportation. "They're
watching what we're doing.
"Transportation officials across the country
are concerned about what's going to happen
with the gas tax revenues."
Privacy advocates say it's more like big
brother riding on your bumper, not to
mention a disincentive to buy fuel-efficient
cars.
"It's not fair for people like me who have to
commute, and we don't have any choice but
take the freeways," says Just. "We shouldn't
have to be taxed."
But tax-by-mile advocates say it may be the
only way to ensure that fuel efficiency
doesn't prevent smooth sailing down the
road.
© MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
News Links
by Rink A Dink Productions
Febuary 18 2005
Top Story Has California gone MAD?
