Editor's note: As the presidential race hits a calm period, KickingTires is taking a look at how each of the top three remaining contenders stack up when it comes to automobile-related policy.
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton wants to take a wide-ranging approach to dealing with issues of climate change and oil dependency. One of her key policy tenets is to change the types of vehicles Americans drive and what kinds of fuel they're using to power them.
According to Clinton's campaign website, she wants to increase fleet-wide fuel efficiency from the 35 mpg standard set for 2020 to 55 mpg by 2030. She wants to do so primarily by investing $2 billion in the research and development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. This would include adding 100,000 PHEVs to the federal fleet in her first term and offering tax credits for as much as $10,000 to consumers who choose PHEVs.
She proposes to help U.S. automakers green-up their operations by extending $20 billion in "green vehicle bonds" to help defray the cost of modernizing their plants. She also wants to invest in biofuels, which she hopes can make up 60 billion gallons of fuel consumed by American cars and trucks by 2030.
Like many of her proposals, Clinton's plans for a green-leaning automotive industry mirror her rival, Barack Obama, and Republican John McCain. She gets points for offering more concrete proposals than McCain, but we remain skeptical that there will be 100,000 PHEVs in circulation by 2013. Even then, with the cost of a plug-in like the Chevy Volt falling anywhere from $35,000 to $48,000, does it make sense to use taxpayer money to add vehicles that expensive to the federal fleet?