Since the government has a lot more vehicles and uses a lot more gasoline and power than most other companies or entities, they should be the ones to kick-start the development of greener technologies for power and cars. If the government required all their agencies to only buy hybrid cars, the cost of hybrid cars would go down significantly and more people would be able to buy them. And as K. R. Sridhar said in Thomas Friedman’s column today,

Second, the government should set high goals for mileage and CO2 emissions for its own vehicle fleet, as well as high goals for eco-friendly, low-energy electricity generation for every government building — and then promise to be the first customer for whatever company reaches those high goals.

“The federal government is the single largest consumer of energy in the country,” Mr. Sridhar said. “It’s time for the government to lead by example and flex a little consumer muscle. It’s time for government to use its buying power when buying power.”

This seems like a really good way for the government to encourage the innovation of greener technologies while driving the prices down for others.  And it is probably more effective than imposing costly regulations on industry and making them pay for it first.  Certainly the government should start obeying the rules first before imposing them on others.