John LeBoutillier
Monday August 6, 2001

Sixty-nine years later we landed on the moon.

And one year after that we drove an electric car on the moon!

All in a mere 70 years – a drop in the bucket of time in the 10,000 years of human life on Planet Earth.

In fact, if you take all the math and science knowledge accumulated and learned by mankind from the beginning to 1950, that knowledge then doubled by 1985!

And it may have doubled again since then.

Yes, we are living in the most exciting and positive time – ever.

Knowing all of this, G.W. Bush – or the next bold president we have – should make a big announcement:

The president should appear before a nationally televised Joint Session of Congress – with a few selected guests up in the Visitors Gallery – and say to the nation, "We are capable and ready to take the next big step in energy and conservation. So I today am setting a hard and fast goal: Within five years we will develop and mass produce a totally electric fuel cell/battery car that will be available to all consumers and will cost the same or less than our present-day vehicles."

He should then point to his guests and introduce them: "Joining us today are the top research scientists from NASA, the Defense Department, our government research labs, our energy companies and the heads of the major car companies as well. This is going to be a joint project – and we are going to use every public and private resource to replace gas-using cars with battery-powered or fuel cell vehicles. We will not accept anything else."

Yes, it is time for such an aggressive national goal. Here is why:

1. Environment. The national – and international – call for cleaner air is no longer confined to just the 'environmentalists'. This has become a mainstream desire. There is massive pollution, ozone damage and perhaps even global warming. And if there isn't yet, there is going to be.

2. Energy. Our entire economy rises or falls in great part with the fluctuation of oil prices. Our foreign and defense policy is often predicated on keeping access to fuel open to us. If Kuwait had no oil, would we have sent 500,000 troops over there? Or would Saddam even have invaded it?

3. Politics. Richard Nixon had a phrase for this type of move – "leapfrogging your opposition." In other words, instead of incrementally trying to keep up with the other side's calls for change – in this case higher fuel standards – go even farther than they have.

If G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney – both seen, fairly or unfairly, as favoring the oil companies – were to lead the way on building and mass producing electric cars within five years, they would completely undercut their political opposition!

Suddenly they would have changed the national political agenda.

The talk at all the coffee machines would be about that.

Quickly people would begin to realize how much money they spend on gas at the pump – and how we all are so dependent on that price.

Magazines would soon publish expected new designs of these soon-to-appear new cars. Americans – who absolutely love new cars – would be excited about these new possiblities.

4. World Leadership. Doesn't it gall you to see all these other nations ripping us for not leading on 'environmental issues'? Well, the replacement of gas-powered cars with a new fuel cell/electric car would once again make the United States of America the marvel of the world!

5. Economics. Can you imagine the ultimate boom our auto companies would have in building and selling these new cars for the world? It would be huge!

What of the oil companies? They will still have a big market for other uses of oil and gas, including home heating fuel, ships, planes, etc. But they will have to realize they are in the "energy business" – and if the new energy of the day is fuel cell/battery power – then they'd better get in on it at the ground floor.

One final item: Cynics will say this is a pipe dream and that we simply cannot build a fuel cell/electric car.

Baloney! Those words – "can't" and "never" – are the words of losers!

Did Dr. Oppenheimer or Albert Einstein throw in the towel on the A-bomb because it had never been done before? Hell, no!

Did Henry Ford give up in his garage because no car had ever been built before?

How about NASA? JFK gave them nine years to walk on the moon – at a time when we could barely put a monkey into orbit. And they got it done.

We are a nation built on dreams – and on boldness.

Now is the time to display the best we have: brains, courage and boldness.