Good, Old American Ingenuity

June 21, 8:34 PMProgressive Politics ExaminerJay McDonough

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Over the last several days, I've posted articles on oil pooping bugs, the gasoline cost impact of drilling in ANWR, John McCain's and President Bush's disingenuous attempts to buffalo Americans into believing near term gas price relief comes from off shore oil drilling and, lastly, emerging hybrid automobile innovations.

Following up, there's a really terrific article in the new Atlantic on General Electric's effort (and huge gamble) to "reinvent the automobile, and itself" in the process.

In conversations with everyone from staff engineers to Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO, I heard references to the Apollo program. “John Kennedy didn’t say, ‘Let’s go to the moon and, you know, we’ll get there as soon as we can,’” Wagoner said in a recent interview in his office, atop a high-rise in Detroit. “I asked our experts, ‘Guys, do we have a reasonable chance of making it or not?’ Yes. ‘Well, then, let’s go for what we want rather than go for what we know we can do.’” With the Volt, GM—battered, beleaguered, struggling for profitability—hopes to re-engineer not just the car but the way the public thinks about cars, the way the public thinks about GM, and the way GM thinks about itself.

As a result of GM's leadership and innovate thinking in this area, they have sparked their competitors to rush electric cars into development.   Toyota, Tesla, Nissan and BMW have announced electric car development with introductions as early as 2010.  While GM isn't crazy about the increased competition, GM acknowledges the number of big players makes success all the more likely.

Count me as a big believer in the power of innovation.  The ultimate solution to our oil habit is not with drilling any and everywhere.   It's smart people thinking outside the box, developing innovations like Volt automobiles and Oil 2.0.

(h/t Daily Dish)