This September, 5.1 million customers of the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., California;s largest utility, will find not just their power and gas bills for the month, but also a petition to automakers to speed up the development of plug-in electric gasoline hybrid vehicles. A big surprise? Not so. PG&E has recently signed up with a Texas-based organization called Plug-In Partners that has set up an Internet petition drive to pressure US and foreign automakers to make cars that can charge up by plugging in to a regular 120-volt household outlet.

Are the car makers responding? Yes they are, but not favorably. According to Toyota spokesman Bill Kwong, Hybrids on the road use electricity generated by the gasoline fueled engine but affordable plug-in hybrids are a decade away.

In the meantime, PG&E believes that the petition should go forward at faster speed to open the eyes of car manufacturers that there are enough buyers and that plug-in hybrids are better than gasoline cars. After all, a car that would be cleaner, cheaper to operate, and ran on domestic resources even at a few thousand dollars more does make sense.

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