Now Are You Ready for Electric Cars?

America is responding to the recent spike in gas prices in the same “depressingly predictable” fashion it always has. “We’re shocked to see prices top $4 a gallon, as if it’s never happened before,” writes Seth Fletcher in the New York Times. “We demand that something be done—not to reduce our dependence on oil, but to cut the cost of a fill-up.” Thankfully, Barack Obama’s got a real solution in mind: He’s calling for more funding for electric car research and tax breaks.

“These investments may be too much to expect from a Congress that can barely keep the government running,” laments Fletcher, but we can at least avoid the "profoundly shortsighted" proposal in Paul Ryan's budget plan to cut energy R&D programs. In the past, we’ve always abandoned electric car research when gas prices fall. This time, let’s prove “America can, in fact, learn from its mistakes.” (Click to read about how gas prices are expected to drop.)