WASHINGTON -- Would people in Seattle buy plug-in cars?

Local Congressman Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) says yes.

Tuesday, he gave lawmakers a preview on Capitol Hill by hosting a display of the new Chevrolet Volt.

The plug-in hybrid concept car will run for 40 miles on battery power after being plugged into a garage overnight. After those 40 miles, it runs on gas or ethanol. Rep. Inslee says not only will the car help curb global warming, but the ethanol use could also be an economic boon to the state.

“So you use your battery power the first 40 miles, then you burn ethanol that’s maybe grown in Eastern Washington with the plants we’re going to develop there,” Inslee said. “So you use electricity and ethanol. It’s called a flex fuel hybrid. It can burn gasoline or ethanol. That’s the beauty of this car -- it’s a triple threat.”

Inslee, who is member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is pushing Congress to fund more research on these green vehicles. He believes the plug-in hybrid is a more immediate answer to global warming than hydrogen fuel cells. Inslee says this model could be on the market in 5 or 6 years.

“We don’t want to wait 15 or 20 years for Hydrogen fuel cells,” Inslee said. “This is the kind of technology in just a few years can be on the road. Global warming is not something we can wait 10 years to deal with.”

On January 19, Inslee filed a bill in the House called the “Get Real: Incentives to Drive (GRID) Plug-In Act,” H.R. 589. The bill establishes a five-year, $500 million grant program for PHEV makers; a pilot project to identify the best way to integrate the cars into the power grid; a government test site to advance battery technology and a tax incentive for customers to buy PHEV’s. He’s also looking for a requirement that 10 percent of the vehicles the federal government purchases are PHEV’s.