Ending America's Energy Insecurity: How Electric Vehicles Can Drive the Solution to Energy Independence

摘要

The homeland/national security threat posed by the United States' dependence on foreign oil has been part of the American discourse for years; yet nothing has been done. No pragmatic, realistic step-by-step plan has been pursued to end this scourge on the American people. The solution can be found in the problem. Net imports of oil account for approximately 50 percent of the oil the U.S. consumes. Likewise, 50 percent of oil consumed in the U.S. is consumed as motor gasoline. If overnight the U.S. stopped using oil to power its vehicles, if overnight drivers switched to electric vehicles, then overnight the U.S. would become energy independent. Using historical data to establish the effect of gasoline price changes on consumer vehicle choice, a predictive model has been created showing the expected switch to electric vehicles if the price of gasoline increases and the cost of electric vehicles decreases. There is a cost to energy independence: two to five dollars per gallon of retail gasoline sold. If monies raised from the tax are used to lower the price of electric vehicles, build recharge infrastructure, and dampen the regressive nature of the tax, energy independence is a few short years away.