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Hybrids Make Their Move
-- Chris -- 09/17/2007
It’s been a big year for the issue of global warming. "An Inconvienient Truth" won an Oscar, we’ve seen countless magazine covers on the issue, and Live Earth delivered all the excitement of a Woodstockesque cultural moment. There’s only one question left to be answered.
Did it matter?
Have the hearts and minds of America shifted in a different direction?
Of course there will always be those who assert the buzz around the issue is entirely media-created, but even the skeptics will find it hard to detract from the signifigance of a new report out today about Hybrid car sales. It seems that sales are up. Way up! Sales from the first seven months of the year rose 49% from the same period of time in 2006. The most interesting part of this study to me was that it really shatters preconceptions around who are buying hybrids. If you think the state that has the highest hybrid sales growth would be California (aren’t hybrids only for those Hollywood tree-hugger types?), you probably wouldn’t be alone. If I told you it wasn’t California, and I asked you to keep guessing, well chances are it would be awhile before you worked your way down to the correct answer.
Oklahoma.
No, really. Oklahoma.
How is it that the state whose senior senator once said global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," managed to achieve this? Keep in mind that Oklahoma didn’t just lead the way, it ran away with it! Hybrid car sales grew in Oklahoma by 143% compared to 2006.
So have the hearts and minds shifted? In a regulation vaccum, with no real incentives to speak of, the people of Oklahoma have answered the question loud and clear.
Yes.
Click here to read the article.
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by Emma