Whenever Something Sounds Too Easy...

It won't work. Ever. Senator Lieberman suffers from the same liberal maliase that effects all true lefties, the yearning to don rose colored glasses in the attempt to spy upon Neverland.

The American public does not want hybrid vehicles, will lose it's right of choice and a certain degree of freedom if FORCED to switch to such slow and cranky and unsafe methods of transportation, but freedom, to a Loon, means being free enough to know what's being taken away from you. SHOULD we see a Hummer every square foot? Of course not. Those wishing to employ more than their fair share of something during a time of crisis and shortages should pay for such gluttony. Attach an energy-surcharge to the purchase of one of those ridiculous and often passengerless battlewagons that soccer Moms so love, and two things will happen. Firstly, most people will switch to something smaller and more fuel efficient. Secondly, in order to keep up with the Joneses, others will work even harder to be able to afford their badge of Road Hog honor, and working harder means paying more taxes, so saving gas from some and adding to the Federal Treasury from others is win-win. This should not be done to hurt businesses, as the genuine need for a pickup truck or gargantuan maxi-van should be taken into consideration such as in the old days when anything over a certain size required commercial license plates.

That, coupled with drilling where we happen to know where some oil is, will drive energy prices down immediately as the market shifts to accomodate the shift in availability. Showing the Arabs that we mean business will cause a swift drop in a barrel of dead dinosaur droppings, and how can that hurt until we TRULY have a REAL plan using technology that actually works?

See what Joey has to say, but be warned that you won't be able to consume anything sweet for a time, as the sugar-content of his essay is enough enamel destruction for one day:

A sample:

"With a bipartisan group of 27 other senators, representing every region of the country, I have introduced the "Set America Free Act" to put us on that path to energy independence and a safer, more prosperous nation - and world.

It starts by setting a national goal - namely, to cut America's oil consumption by 10 million barrels a day over the next 25 years. To that end, our bill requires that half of all vehicles sold in the United States must be hybrid, hybrid/electric- plug-in or alternative-fuel vehicles.

We can do it. The pieces are there just waiting to be assembled. We don't need to pry exotic technologies off the drawing board.

First, we must realize that gasoline is not the only portable source of stored energy. Corn, switchgrass and agricultural waste can be used to create billions of barrels of new fuels on millions of acres of both active and idle cropland.

In a few years, our farmers could be measuring their production in barrels of energy as well as bushels of food. And that American-grown fuel would mean American jobs and steadier prices as well.

Yes, a shift to things like electric cars will add to the demand from our power plants. But oil makes up just 2 percent of our nation's electric generation. So we'd be powering our vehicles with electricity from other sources - such as advanced zero-emissions coal, nuclear, solar and wind - drastically lowering our oil dependence.

For these ideas to work, we need vehicles that can use biofuels or electricity - or both. But some of these technologies are nearing the threshold of commercialization even now. One is the plug-in hybrid vehicle - which uses both an internal combustion engine and a battery that can be charged overnight, just like a cell phone.

On an overnight charge, these vehicles can go 30 miles. While Americans drive about 2.2 trillion miles a year, most trips are less than 10 miles. That means a plug-in hybrid would use zero gallons of gas - or any other combustible fuel - for the vast majority of its trips and could get the equivalent of 500 miles per gallon or more on longer trips using flexible fuels.

The growing global dependency on oil endangers our nation. Failure to act will leave us a pitiful giant, like Gulliver in Lilliput, tied down and subject to the whim of smaller nations who have oil.

And the outrage is that we will have given them the ropes and helped them tie the knots - for solutions are readily at hand.

It is time to set America free. Cutting our dependence on oil will strengthen our security, preserve our independence, and energize our economy."

See? No Pay-As-You-Go, or demonstrate a real need, just force-fed nannyism at it's best.