Rep. Ed Markey: Stupid Comment of the Week
July 13, 2007

To you, Rep. Ed Markey, goes the Stupid –- and Insulting –- Comment of the Week for this one:

“Innovations such as the plug-in hybrids should not have been sitting on the shelf for so long,” he said. “After all, this isn’t rocket science; it is auto mechanics.”

Where to begin?

Markey is the Massachusetts Democrat who has proposed a fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2018. His remark came at Thursday’s hearings before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Plug-in hybrids were the hot topic. By the way, automakers -- those responsible for developing plug-in hybrids –- were not in attendance at the hearings. They weren’t invited.

First, I’m no defender of the auto companies, including Detroit’s Big Three. Their slowness or utter failure to deliver vehicles, like small, fuel-efficient cars, that consumers really want is exasperating. So, too, is their “just say no” policy to everything related to fuel economy and emissions. For an industry already with a black eye and suffering from damaged public reputations, they have made bad moves in this regard. At the same time, they’ll try to market themselves as “green,” shooting themselves in the foot.

And I've withheld comment on Washington's discussions on new fuel economy and CO2 standards, because, frankly, I don't know the right answer. I know it is a complicated issue with lots of angles to consider. I know that something absolutely must be done to clean our air and water and reduce dependence on oil. I know this is the moonshot of our lifetimes, and everyone needs to come together to find the answer(s).

But Markey's comments are silly.

Why in the world would a car company keep “on the shelf” groundbreaking technology like plug-in hybrids and such that could gain them not only public favor and a competitive edge but also sales and profits, which is why they are in business, after all. This goes along with the urban myth that carmakers and oil companies are in cahoots. If the public only knew…

And if producing a plug-in hybrid –- and other fuel-saving vehicles –- is so easy, as Markey, the Sierra Club and others insist, why aren’t they doing it? Why aren’t they getting rich off it? Why aren't more companies in the car business? Why? Because it is hard, it is complicated and it is expensive.

Why, for that matter, isn’t the supposedly brilliant, incredibly rich, “can’t do anything wrong” Toyota producing plug-in hybrids right now? Even Toyota, the expert on hybrids, hasn’t figured out how to do a plug-in hybrid for the masses yet. Japanese newspapers recently reported that Toyota has backed away from lithium-ion batteries for its next-generation Prius, fearing quality glitches. Experts agree lithium-ion batteries make a plug-in hybrid viable but the technology is not ready for prime time.

Even Tesla, the little company making the expensive roadster that’s supposed to run on lithium-ion laptop computer batteries is encountering problems.

And despite Markey’s remark, auto mechanics and auto engineering are approaching rocket science. Today’s automobile has more computer chips than the early spacecrafts sent to the moon. Auto companies literally are tapping into the brains and resources of our rocket scientists -- those at national laboratories, research firms and universities. We’re at the point that basic scientific research and breakthroughs are required for such things as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, plug-in hybrids and the like.

Maybe Markey should make a field trip to his home state and visit with the scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who also haven’t developed a hydrogen-powered car or a plug-in hybrid that can be mass-produced.

Instead, who did Markey call upon as an “expert” witness as Thursday’s hearings?

Hollywood actor Rob Lowe, who starred on the now defunct West Wing and currently plays a conservative Republican congressman on ABC’s Sunday night show, Brothers and Sisters. Lowe drives a Toyota Prius he had converted to a plug-in hybrid by a small company called A123 systems. (He didn't say how much he paid for the conversion.) His car uses lithium ion batteries from China. (Hope, for Lowe’s sake, the battery maker has better quality controls than the producers of China’s exported toothpaste, dog food and Thomas the Tank engine toys.)

Lowe, in his testimony, urged Congress to back the plug-in hybrid industry, citing the 150-mile-per-gallon efficiency that prototypes (one-off, not real-running cars not mass-produced, by the way) can achieve.

Finally, Markey insulted every mechanic in the country, implying what they do is simplistic. He stopped short of calling them “grease monkeys.”

Thanks, in part, to the lack of respect people like Markey have for them, mechanics are in incredibly short supply. The career demands sharp minds to diagnose and repair difficult problems, a college education and intensive, life-long training. Yet, as Markey’s comment suggests, the profession has a poor public image, another challenge to recruiting great talent.

I recall the ire of my stepfather, a smart man and a backyard mechanic, when the administrators of the local vocational school refused “college-bound” students for the auto mechanics program and, instead, dumped students, who they deemed couldn’t do anything else, into the field. He ended his frequent rants with his wish that one of these students be assigned to work on the cars of these so-called educators who had dumped students into the mechanics program.

I'm sure he'd wish the same on Markey for his remark.

Or maybe Markey can call on "expert" Rob Lowe to fix his car.

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:52 AM under Commentary , Personalities , Technology | Comments (4) | digg this | Seed Newsvine