Jan 30 2009 23 mins
Guilt-Free
America has a penchant for over indulgence. You can see it with our collective weight, which has ballooned of late and given rise to a cottage industry of guilt-free products that hardly look like diet foods. But we're told that we can have our cake and eat it too. Sound too good to be true? Well in many respects the auto industry has mirrored this individual over-consumption problem. For years it built vehicles that may have been big and comfortable but consumed far too much petroleum and got too few MPGs. Now with our new world financial order it's trying to wean Americans off of our "cheesecake" SUV and into that not-as-satisfying hybrid "sorbet" among other greener "lighter" options.
This week John McElroy is joined by two experts to talk turkey -- tofurkey more appropriately -- about the coming environmental options for the auto industry. John DeCicco is an automotive analyst who works for the Environmental Defense Fund and Paul Eisenstein is a veteran automotive journalist who has brought a special focus to hybrids, diesels and electrics for the last few years. Both have a unique perspective on both the processes and products that we'll be driving and riding in the not too distant future.
America has a penchant for over indulgence. You can see it with our collective weight, which has ballooned of late and given rise to a cottage industry of guilt-free products that hardly look like diet foods. But we're told that we can have our cake and eat it too. Sound too good to be true? Well in many respects the auto industry has mirrored this individual over-consumption problem. For years it built vehicles that may have been big and comfortable but consumed far too much petroleum and got too few MPGs. Now with our new world financial order it's trying to wean Americans off of our "cheesecake" SUV and into that not-as-satisfying hybrid "sorbet" among other greener "lighter" options.
This week John McElroy is joined by two experts to talk turkey -- tofurkey more appropriately -- about the coming environmental options for the auto industry. John DeCicco is an automotive analyst who works for the Environmental Defense Fund and Paul Eisenstein is a veteran automotive journalist who has brought a special focus to hybrids, diesels and electrics for the last few years. Both have a unique perspective on both the processes and products that we'll be driving and riding in the not too distant future.