Time for natural gas hybrid vehicles?

New fuel, new battery

Starting Wednesday, the Pickens Plan will kick off a virtual march to push Congress and the White House towards a greater embrace of natural gas and wind power.

President Obama, however, has indicated that natural gas isn't an option. It's the electric car or nothing, but is that really wise?

I'm certainly not arguing against plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. It just seems to me that scaling up production of these vehicles is going to take much more time than most advocates are willing to accept. Likewise, many of these vehicles are going to be consuming dirty coal for decades.

Thus, shouldn't natural gas be at least part of the conversation? And, to protect the drive towards electrification, the program could be driven by natural gas hybrid vehicles, which keeps investment into battery technology rolling while replacing foreign oil with domestic, cleaner natural gas.

Finish:  Time for natural gas hybrid vehicles?