According to an article in today's LA Times, the technology exists to build a vehicle that would get 500 miles to the gallons. Why isn't this being done?
Add in "flexible fuel" options that already allow many cars to run on a combination of petroleum and fuels like ethanol (derived from corn) and methanol (from natural gas or coal), and you could build vehicles that could get -- drum roll, please -- 500 miles per gallon of gasoline. That's not science fiction; that's achievable right now.
Everyone knows how volatile gasoline prices have become in recent months. The price for a barrel of oil seems to be rising higher and higher. There is talk of oil reaching $80 or $100 a gallon in the next few years. The long-term implications of dependency on quickly depleting non-renewable oil are not being explored.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-max24mar24,0,2283421.column?coll=la-util-op-ed
There is an impending crisis. There is the technology to fix it. I hold George Bush and our Republican-controlled congress for not addressing this issue.
Set America Free estimates that if we convert entirely to flexible-fuel, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, U.S. gasoline imports in 20 years will drop by two-thirds. As important, because Americans are the world's biggest car buyers, U.S. preferences would reshape the global automotive industry. Carmakers would wind up shipping hybrid electrics to Europe and Asia too. President Bush could hasten the transition through an international agreement to move major economies away from oil dependency. This would not only reduce the Middle East's strategic importance but also help reduce emissions to Kyoto-mandated levels.
We all know that George Bush stands with the oil industry rather than the American people. He has made his choice. More money for the oil industry. Less money for the American people who have to spend their disposable income on gas.
President Bush and Republicans have responded to the energy crisis with drilling in ANWR. What is next? Further relaxation of U.S. environmental standards. Nothing Bush has proposed to date even suggests a viable exit strategy from perpetual crisis.
We have so organized our economy and society around the availability of cheap and abundant petroleum that we are severely ill-equipped to deal with the sort of shortages and supply disruptions that are likely to become the norm in the years ahead. We need to start creating the foundation for new fuels to exist and being used by everyone.