When plug-in hybrids become commercially available (in 2010, if Toyota and General Motors can be believed), there will, in all likelihood, be a tax credit ready and waiting for early adopters. This is great news for the new technology, and a good sign that the government can still make the right moves when it comes to promoting alternative energy vehicles.

There are actually two bills in the House of Representatives that could, if passed by the house and Senate, and signed into law by the President, provide up to $5,000 per vehicle in tax credits. That’s still not enough to cover the incremental costs of a plug-in hybrid, but it’s a start. Obviously, for plug-in hybrids to succeed, more incentives may be needed, as well as a whole lot of energy-conscious consumers who are

willing to pay a premium for a car that may only need to visit the gas station three or four times a year.

What about you? What would you pay, either as a private consumer or as a fleet manager, for a plug-in hybrid?

I just came back from a fairy-tale world where people drive around in cars that don’t need gasoline, except that this place really exists. The city of Vacaville, California, halfway between Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area, holds the distinction of having the highest concentration of electric vehicles (and public electric vehicle charging staions) per capita in the United States. And we’re not talking about “neighborhood electric vehicles” that can only go 25 miles an hour on certain streets; we’re talking about highway-capable vehicles that can go up to 60 mph for up to 120 miles.

Yep, the people who made the documentary movie “Who Killed the Electric Car?” could have found the electric vehicle alive and well in Vacaville, which has earned the nickname “Voltageville” in the local press. The city has 25 electric Toyota RAV4s in its fleet, and at one time boasted 100 electric vehicles on its streets, owned both by the City and many of its visionary citizens.

Of course, that was back in the early part of the decade when electric vehicles (EVs) were still being sold in California by Ford, Nissan, GM and Toyota. Today, sadly, EVs are scarcer than hen’s teeth, but Vacaville’s diminished fleet keeps buzzing along, thanks in large part to a network of charging stations installed throughout the city, where anyone with an EV can charge up for free. We’ll be writing more in our October issue about Vacaville and Ed Huestis, the pioneering city management analyst who turned it into Voltageville, but some news can’t wait: Thanks in large part to work by Huestis and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vacaville may land the new Tesla Motors electric vehicle plant. The plant, which could employ up to 400 people, would produce Tesla’s Model S highway EV, a five-passenger electric sedan with a range of 225 miles on a charge. If this dream comes true, Voltageville might have to rename itself High Voltageville.

I can’t help thinking that the worst job in the world right now has got to be “Hummer dealer.” Not only are sales of the behemoth SUVs tanking, but GM is making loud noises about shedding the now-embarrassing division completely. Would anyone really buy Hummer right now?

When I drive past the local Hummer dealership I shake my head… A few short years ago, the local Cadillac dealership cleared away half of its valuable commercial property to build a bright, vast, stunning new Hummer showroom, a modern-day interpretation of a quonset hut with the huge Hummer logo beaming out across the city. For the first few years, I’m sure the trucks sold like hotcakes; GM even introduced a series of smaller, “fuel-efficient” Hummer models based on their Chevy/GM pickup and SUV architecture.

But today, none of that matters. The quonset hut is quiet, and GM is belatedly questioning the wisdom of selling huge, hard-to-drive, gas-gulping SUVs.

Now, if Hummer fades away, not many fleets will be affected. But you have to wonder who’s next. Are other brands and models in danger? Could Ford’s plans to produce a lightweight, fuel-efficient F-100 pickup truck eventually doom the F-150? If bread-and-butter brands and models start to disappear, how will your fleet’s purchasing plans be affected?

In my last blog entry, I wrote about a friend at work asking me recently why diesel fuel is so much more expensive than gasoline, and the answer was somewhat sinister. Well, later that very same day I was at a dinner party with friends, and another sinister issue came up. Since we were all eating, it was only natural for the conversation to turn to the high cost of food. Inevitably, someone asked why food prices were rising, and someone else said, without any trace of doubt in his voice, “Well, it’s because all of our crops are going to biofuel production.”

I had to break in when I heard that. “No,” I said, “You’re falling for big oil’s propoganda.”

Big oil would like us all to blame the biofuel industry for high food prices, but it just isn’t so. I explained to my friends that far more of our corn and soybean crops are used to feed livestock than to produce biofuels. And then we eat the livestock. And nobody wants to give up their Whoppers.

Does this mean we should blame the livestock industry? Do we all become vegetarians? No, that would be just as silly and ignorant as blaming the biofuels industry (although it wouldn’t hurt any of us to eat less meat). So, as you’re cooking out this Fourth of July weekend, if you want to look for something to blame for high food prices, don’t blame biofuels. The real culprit is the high cost of transporting food to market, and that, my friends, is caused by skyrocketing fuel prices. Which takes us full circle, back to the question of why diesel fuel has become so much more expensive than gasoline. Sinister, isn’t it?