Well, it looks like the American car makers are going to get their clock cleaned again. 

An AP story in the Herald by Dee-Ann Durbin reveals:

Although a slowdown is expected in the second half of the year, J.D. Power is forecasting total sales of 345,000 hybrids for 2007, a 35 percent increase from 2006 when the current record of 256,000 was set.

The Toyota Prius continues to be the bestselling hybrid model, accounting for just more than half of all hybrids sold.

Remember the anti-Japanese 1980’s when US automakers would have symbolic “bashings” of some little Datsun or Toyota?  You’d better dust off your safety glasses because I think the windshields are gonna get bashed again and our domestic auto manufacturers have nobody to blame but themselves.

Chrysler (the company that cheats fuel economy requirements by calling the PT Cruiser a “truck”) has turned into such a lemon for it’s former parent company Daimler-Benz that it dumped it at a loss to a private equity firm.

GM will officially lose it’s crown as the #1 car maker to Toyota this year which (surprise) pins it’s new found status as the world’s largest car company to their investment in fuel efficient and hybrid-drive cars.

From Yurika Geyama, AP Business Writer, posted on Herald.com 8/3/07:

Booming sales of fuel-efficient cars helped lift Toyota to its biggest quarterly profit and put the maker of the Prius hybrid on pace to beat General Motors as the world’s No. 1 automaker this year.

…Surging gas prices have proved a big plus for Toyota as drivers flock to its fuel-efficient models, including the Camry, the best-selling model in the U.S., and the Prius gas-electric hybrid.

Ford, which was on track to start turning out hybrids, has backed off, but at least offers one hybrid model – in an SUV of course.

GM is betting on the Back to the Future “Volt” which is half-Harry Potter fantasy car at this point since the engineers at GM admit they have no idea where the “Volt” will get the “juice” to “go.”  I bet they wish they hadn’t smashed up all those EV1s now.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t think hybrids are the solution to all our global warming and "peak oil" woes.  I’m not sure any car technology will do that really.  But as gasoline settles uncomfortably around $3 a gallon with all expectations that it will inexorably rise as world demand grows, US car companies, still deluded to this reality, will try to stick a hybrid drive in a Hummer and call it the Eco.

Like Yogi Berra said “it’s déjà vu all over again.”

For a list of the most fuel efficient cars on the road, visit fueleconomy.gov

Well, to those of us who have been pushing for what seems like eternity for Florida to take action on global warming, the last couple months have been flat-out surreal.  First we have our newly elected Governor, in his first State of the State address, actually declare that climate change is not only real (duh) but that it is “one of the most important issues that we will face this century.”

That’s a real quote.  From the Governor of Florida no less.  I’m not kidding – look it up yourself if you like.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Now top that with not one, not two, but three conferences either hosted or attended by Florida Cabinet members over this summer on the very issue of Climate Change.  It’s like someone flipped a switch (or made a really popular movie out of a slide show) and now everyone wants to be green.  Kermit’s day has finally arrived!

Anyway, the point of this post is really to let you know that the big show – a star studded event that so far includes union pariah, turned greenest governor ever, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the environmental super-dude Robert F. Kennedy Junior, and Theodore Roosevelt IV – descendant of The Teddy himself and the Chair of the Pew Center for Global Climate Change – will be hosted in the “canary in the coal mine” for climate change.  Yep, Miami. Tomorrow. Check it out yourself at myfloridaclimate.com.

The agenda page of the website just published and includes a pretty good compilation of experts in various fields.  Unfortunately not too many from Florida.  The State may be slow to realize the importance of this problem (better late than never at least), but we have some great people with lots of experience in academic circles and local government.  Hopefully we’ll hear a bit of that in the late Thursday session.

Although the cynic in me wants to make this conference no more than a tour of the next Atlantis, I’m truly hopeful that we can focus this event (and the inevitable international media spotlight) to finally get our Country on track and join the rest of the world in trying to come up with a real plan.  And quick.

Share the Truth, a website set up with the sole purpose to encourage people to see this movie, has provided us with the funds to send two people to the movies. Basically, the site has two facets: 1) donate funds to sponsor people to go see the movie, or 2) request funds to go see the movie. Well, we requested, and we received!

See An Inconvenient Truth for FREE! Ticket Giveaway sponsored by Share the Truth.

Here’s how it will work. Write to greenerMIAMI and briefly tell us:

• Why you’d like to see the movie
• Who you’ll bring and why you’d like to bring them
• When & where you plan on seeing it (must be on/after July 12)

Additionally, you’ll need to pledge that you will write a post for greenerMIAMI with your experience and thoughts on the film. Rules: Must see the movie in Miami-Dade county. First timers only please.

Deadline for submission: Tuesday, July 11, 2006. A winner will be selected no later than July 12, 2006.

So come on, write to us! Free tickets! You haven’t seen it yet, but you know you should!

I’d like to give an extra special thanks to Share the Truth for their entire purpose, and for providing the funds so that we can offer free tickets to our readers. Support their cause and donate!

Citizens for a Better South Florida still has some tickets available to an invitation only pre-screening on Thursday, June 8 at 7:30 pm in South Beach. An informal panel discussion will follow the movie. Send an email to info [at] abettersouthflorida [dot] org with your full name and contact information, or call Alex at (305) 648-0000. Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis. More details.

Already released in some cities around the US, a friend of mine from Boston has this to say about the movie:

It was amazing. I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone looking to be "entertained". It’s a movie that makes you think – long after you’ve left the theater. I can’t believe a reporter asked George Bush if he was going to see it and he said "No". If everyone in America saw this movie, there might be a bigger push towards alternative energies and less reliance on oil. So, I am trying to tell everyone I know to see it.

It shouldn’t matter on what side of the political arena you sit. This is a world topic, not a political one.

According to the movie website, several theaters in the Miami area will show this movie beginning on Friday, June 9. I am in the process of confirming this information. In the meantime, I also found this information regarding a South Beach screening and panel on June 8, and later published as June 18 (so there is definitely an error). I will publish more information as it comes along.

Watch the Trailer: An Inconvenient Truth