Ben Stein writes a column called "Everybody's Business" in the business section of the Sunday New York Times. It's quite a good column and I enjoy reading it.

It wasn't the main point of his article, but he made a bit of an oopsie concerning hybrids today (Oct. 9, 2005). He wrote:

"Americans are moving at a measured pace fro gasoline-powered cars and trucks to hybrids. But the percentage of hybrids is still tiny - and they get hydrogen and electricity from plants fired by coal, oil and natural gas, by the way, which is like cutting off a blanket at one end and sewing it on at the other to make it longer."

I sent him a little message on the difference between hybrids on the one hand, and hydrogen-powered cars (where he's on-target, since hydrogen fuels are an energy "carrier" rather than an energy "source") on the other.

 

Does "The Grey Lady" (nickname for the New York Times) have dementia?

 

nice to see they do their research... not.

 

And I thought I got my electricity from hitting the brakes...

 

The Prius charges the battery up both through regenerative breaking but also (more frequently) by running the gas engine just a bit harder at opportune moments.

 

Gee... such a surprise... Someone in the mainstream media talking out their a** without doing a whit of research first? Say it ain't so!

 

Hopefully, in the not too distant future, H2 will be generated using solar, wind, hydro or maybe even in a backyard "still" using tap water and a couple of solar panels...

 

Ben Stein is a very intellegent person. I'm sure he was editorializing and just messed up the facts. I'm sure he would be happy to be corrected.

I have a lot of respect for him. I'll let him pass because I know he is generaly pretty thoughtful. I am going to try to respond to the article to correct him however.

 

I agree that Ben Stein is a good guy. I sent him an email with two short paragraphs - one on hybrids and one on hydrogen - and he sent me a brief thanks.