Newsflash: oil is a limited resource.  It’s going to run out in the next 200 years.  As long as we are dependent on oil, we will always need a presence in the Middle East.  There’s also this stuff called emissions, which collectively make Chicago slightly less cold in the winter.  None of these things are good.  So, instead of continuing towards the inevitable collapse, why don’t we do something about it?

Luckily, companies like Tesla and Better Place are working on it.  Tesla, the first legitimate electric car company, already has a very cool Roadster, and has begun development of a sedan, the Tesla S.  They are both very, very cool ideas.  Better Place, the company run by the man in the video above, is investing in and lobbying for the infrastructure to support a completely electric auto world.  This involves placing charging stations and battery swap stations all over the world.  Ideas like this fascinate me and make me hopeful for the future.  But I am quite troubled over this hopefully impending revolution.  Where are the Big boys?  Yes, GM has developed the Volt, but really?  $32,500 (with subsidies!)?  That’s the best you can do?  Ford?  Toyota?  Why have these companies only waited until now to start putting money into this?

While I’m on the subject of American car companies, I might as well pick some bones.  GM – please stop sucking.  Stop bowing down to the unions like they control you.  They don’t.  Or at least they shouldn’t.  That brings up my general hatred of unions.  You should NOT be paid $60 thousand dollars a year to push a button every 60 seconds.  Sorry, but it’s true.  Nor should you receive ridiculous pensions and health benefits for doing a job that requires little to no education.  Before you get offended, I’m not trashing the people who do these jobs.  I’m sure most of them are good, family-loving people, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to be overpaid.  Yes, fixing relationships with the unions is easier said than done, but I digress…

GM/Ford/Chrysler: please innovate.  If your current business model garnered massive profits, I would understand a reluctance to change.  Last time I checked, however, you are all bleeding with red numbers like it’s going out of style (GM and Ford have lost 90% of their market cap over the past 10 years).  You are responsible for literally millions of American jobs.  You have a responsibility to your shareholders to be profitable, and you have a social responsibility to keep your employees with you.  If you continue on your current path, neither of these things will be possible in 10 years.  Guess what: the winner of the electric car revolution will probably be extremely profitable.  Just a guess.  You are in trouble, I get that.  As of this point, my neighbors and I have helped you out a lot.  Make it worth it.  You should not have received a single cent of bailout money unless you gauranteed innovation in the electric field.  GAURANTEED.  As in, “we are going to be 100% electric by 2025″.  Bold, but possible.  President John F. Kennedy made it the United States’ goal to be on the moon by the end of the 1960s.  He/we succeeded.  Be bold and make it your mission to do so with electric cars.  Please.