Green People

This section of the conference is a talk with Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman, and Mike Jackson, CEO, AutoNation (see above).
We entered a dark room and chose our seat in about 100 plush arm chairs. The room was bathed in a bright blue light, music came on, and Mike Jackson, Richard Edelman, and a moderator took the stage. They began the talk with some discussion on "green" cars. Why is the Toyota Prius one of the most popular hybrid cars ever made? "Well," said Mike Jackson, "It's all because of the model." He went on to say that the unique body of the Prius proclaimed that "I'm doing good in the world and saving the environment." The two men then went on to talk about a more serious subject: the sales of these fuel-efficient and alternative fuel cars. These sales have gone down a lot since October. You can follow these sales and see that they match up with the decline in gas prices. This is to be expected. These two, powerful men went on to give the advice to the government to put a gas tax on the average premium that you put into your car. Therefore, by raising the price of gas, the sales of the fuel efficient car should go up. Therefore we can be a less petroleum-dependent country. This is a radical and controversial strategy, and one that may not be very popular.