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Wesley Clark Deems Electric Cars 'National Security' Issue

by Amar Toor on October 26, 2009 at 05:30 PM

Retired U.S. Army General and former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark has upped the ante in the ongoing national discourse on clean energy. Speaking before auto industry professionals and suppliers at a Detroit conference last week, Clark characterized the transition to electric cars as crucial to both environmental friendliness and, more surprisingly, national security. Noting the United States' desperate need to kick foreign oil, Clark described the production of electric cars as "absolutely dead-center in the bull's eye for national security." The Detroit Free Press reports that he then went on to give an economic argument for the move, comparing today's energy race to the early stages of the personal computer, the cell phone, and the Internet. Drawing a parallel to the "whole new industry" that PCs created, Clark apparently sees the potential for a similar economic boom in the nascent electric auto industry.

We've heard the same core argument before, but discussions of national security hold more weight when they come from someone with Clark's clout and experience. To the General's liking, General Motors has already unveiled the Volt and efforts to invest in renewable energy have already created a few jobs. It's just that the rest of the world is doing more. Automakers' primary concern remains the bottom line, and their first priority is clawing their way out of the red -- especially after the financial crisis put Detroit and its teetering economic system on life support. The financial crunch also explains the Volt's $40,000 price tag. Convinced that Americans prefer SUVs to petite hybrids, Detroit doesn't consider the Volt to have the widespread consumer appeal of SUVs. While national security issues are certainly important, it's going to take a purely financial argument to convince Detroit to really start playing catch-up with overseas manufacturers. [From: Detroit Free Press]

Tags: autoindustry, electric car, ElectricCar, energyefficient, green, NationalSecurity, top, volt, WesleyClark

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