I must admit that I don’t surf over to American Thinker all that often. While I do read conservative media online (especially such sites as Little Green Footballs, Front Page Magazine and Zombietime) I hadn’t seen a whole lot on American Thinker, where the staff includes frequent O’Reilly Factor/Dennis Miller guests and the proprietor of the website Right Wing Nuthouse. Sample post: "Al Gore Really Is Stupid."

 

But American Thinker is hosting a lively debate on the future of electric vehicles.

 

It started with a by-the-book blast from Isaac Martin, decrying the claims of battery car makers and questioning whether the Tesla Roadster really can go 250 miles on a charge. And, of course, it included a swipe at President Obama for trying to ram these snake-oil EVs down our throats. And on the Tonight Show no less.

 

If Martin’s column had been printed on paper, it would be wrapping fish today because a few days after it was posted Tesla managed to wring 241 miles from a single charge at the Rallye Monte Carlo d’Energies Alternatives.

 

But then American Thinker policed itself with a thoughtful response from Adam Hasner, a hybrid-driving Republican state rep from Boca Raton who is pushing state tax incentives for EVs. Hasner shares Martin’s “critical view of President Obama on issues too numerous to count,” but he also likes electric cars and plug-in hybrids.

 

Hasner pointed out that 80 percent of Americans drive less than 40 miles a day, so their range limitations are not necessarily a deal breaker. Hasner campaigned in a 2002 RAV4-EV battery car…and won! It’s 120-mile range was more than enough for daily swings through his coastal district, and it got him to events in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, too.

 

It should be pointed out that the EV marketplace includes plug-in hybrids with 600 miles or more of range. More important for the average beleaguered family in a recession, as Hasner points out, is that EVs offer “120+ mpg from an affordably priced car.”