First of all, gasoline will not last forever. Oil, which is required to make gasoline, is a non-renewable resource. Several people don’t believe will run out of oil, because there is so much that is undiscovered or just difficult and expensive to reach (Discover www.findarticles.com). Although it is true, we are uncertain how much oil is still undiscovered, the amount used vastly outnumbers the amount found in new sources (www.sciam.com). That is a good indication that oil production is slowing down, not because of choice, but because it isn’t as easy to find. There is less of it.

However, the depletion of oil may be s

lowed by the replacement of the current automobiles that are in use with new hybrid engine vehicles. Hybrid engines are engines that use a combination of gasoline and electric energy in order to maximize the efficiency of our automobiles. These hybrid engines help to reduce this problem by requiring anywhere from a half to a third of the gasoline for the same distance and speed of a normal gasoline engine (http://denver.bizjournals.com). Hybrid engines are a quick step that we as Americans can take towards solving this problem that will become exponentially larger the longer it is ignored.

Another problem gasoline-powered vehicles cause is air pollution. In fact, the union of concerned scientists says that it is the largest polluter in America. Air pollution affects people’s health, the ability and health of plants, and its currently slowly changing our climate (www.epa.gov 1). Air pollution from cars is such a large problem that some believe it has caused more deaths that traffic accidents (www.planetark.org).

However, what makes these hybrid vehicles in the best position to bring about these changes in gasoline use and environmentally friendly emissions is not those functions, because battery-electric cars could do that years ago (www.rmi.org). It is that the cars that have tried to replace the gasoline combustible automobile, asked the American consumer to give up much more than they were willing. Since the government isn’t and probably won’t require Americans to use products for the sake of environment unless they are just as good, HEVs are beginning to succeed where battery-electric cars failed. The fact is that those battery-electric cars’ battery need to be to heavy or large to allow much more than 100km and need to be recharge way too often to drive long distances like Americans are used to driving (http://www.carclickbc.com). These hybrid engines are a lot closer to the gasoline automobiles that we are used to and have a much larger range (http://www.ott.doe.gov 3). The power of non-gasoline cars has also been questioned at times, but some hybrid electric vehicles can accelerate faster than conventional vehicles (http://www.spectrum.ieee.org). The Toyota Prius, for example can accelerate 40 to 70 km/h in 5 seconds or less, while it takes an average automatic transmission 6 seconds or more (http://www.spectrum.ieee.org).

When I did a little research for this topic, I soon realized how big the problem of depleting oil could potentially be. If gasoline disappeared twenty years down the road; what would that mean to me? This thought is one of the main reasons I became even more convinced that some changes needed to be made. I realize that hybrid engines won’t solve the problem of a limited amount of gasoline, but it will buy us some more time to develop appropriate technologies in order to make a smooth transition to a more permanent energy source.

Another factor that might prevent people from accepting hybrid electric vehicles is the price. Though some are not much more expensive than a gasoline combustion engine (www.toyota.com), there are others that can range up to $48,900 (www.honda.com). On the other hand, if gasoline were $1.50 per gallon, you would save about 1.6 cents every mile you drove (www.swmcb.org). But still, the HEVs with the best mileage and the least emissions are still rather pricey, and to the average consumer are still expensive (gdi.ce.cmu.edu).

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