Re:Simple. Don't (Score 1)

Just a couple of comments on this. First, hybrids don't get charged by plugging into the wall, thus they are not using electric power from power plants. They are still using fossil fuels in the form of gasoline, though.

I'm not up on all of the technology used in the current production hybrids, but I have worked in research with hybrids in the past. Another source of energy that is not often considered is regenerative braking. Not all of the electricity stored in the batteries is generated by gasoline. When the accelerator is not being depressed (ie foot is not on "the gas"), the eletric motor turns around and becomes a generator. This generator will also recharge the batteries using the momentum of the vehicle (ie when going down hill this is really nice). This regenerative braking alone can recover quite a bit of energy (on the order of 30%). This is something that normal cars cannot do no matter how high their gas mileage is. As I said, I'm not up on how the hybrids out there are designed so I don't know how much they rely on this kind of charging (if at all). My point is that the 50mpg you can get from a hybrid is more fuel efficient than the 50mpg you can get from a Jetta TDI because the 50mpg is not fully dependent on the burning of fossil fuels (well, indirectly it is, but it's recovering lost energy).