By Mark Lisheron
While just a bit tardy to give the American economy of 2009 a jolt, a $10.4 million stimulus grant is just now being put to work getting Austin residents into electric cars at a steal.
Pecan Street, an environmental nonprofit based on the University of Texas campus, is using the grant to set up a kind of energy use laboratory in the recently developed mixed-use neighborhood where the Mueller Municipal Airport used to be, according to a story posted today by Texas Tribune.
Part of the experiment will be to study energy use by the Mueller residents lucky enough to get a $7,500 stimulus rebate on top of the $7,500 federal tax credit to buy one of the 100 electricity and gas hybrid Chevy Volts the company made available for the project.
Of the 200 residents taking part in the study, 140 have expressed an interest in the cars which have a base price of about $41,000 before all of the taxpayer support.
