The lesson to learn here is the one taught by a superbly run company that
is solidly grounded in the realities of a real world, though one that's a
minor player in the oil business: Exxon.

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson has stated in no uncertain terms that conventional
petroleum will continue to be the world's primary source of energy for at
least the next 80 years.

Petroleum is safe, cheap, and efficient like nothing else is. And this in
spite of the fact that 85% of the world's oil supply is directly
controlled, produced and sold by governments.

Jeff, read "Energy Victory" by Dr. Robert Zubrin.  He is a brilliant
engineer. Sure, if the CEO of Exxon has his way, we will be dependent
on gasoline forever.  Today it costs about an additional $150.00 to
produce a flex-fuel car...that's all.  The oil companies will  lobby
HARD against any initiatives to mandate that all cars manufactured be
flex-fuel, you can bet on that.  OPEC willl lean hard on their
bought-out lackeys in govt. also to vote against any such mandate.
But there is a reason why race cars swtitched to alcohol fuel years
ago. Yes, a tank full of ethanol or methanol has to be about 40%
bigger to go the same distance as gasoline, but alcohol fuels for race
cars are far superior both in performance and from a safety
standpoint. Brazil did not find it hard to produce cars that run great
on alcohol fuels, and Brazil has been 100% energy independent for a
number of years.  They switched to 100% alcohol fuel, derived from
sugar cane. THe president at the time just made a decree that all gas
sations will install pumps for alcohol, and that was what they did to
jump-start the convesion from gasoline to alcohol fuel.  We could
produce alcohol fuels here from any number of crops that are not in
the food chain.  In the case of  methanol, it can be produced from ANY
biomass at all. Also we have enough coal and natural gas reserves in
this country to last for hundreds of years, and  through a steam
reformation process, either coal or natural gas can produce methanol.
Back in the 80s a lady engineer with Ford Co. (after the first Arab
oil embargo) perfected a small car engine that ran on pure alcohol,
and there was a state agency in Ca. that ran a large fleet of these
vehicles with great success.  Now there is an engine design that is
far simpler, as a special sensor to detect how much alcohol is in the
fuel ahead of combustion is no longer required. Hydrogen power for
cars is a total hoax, one that the Bush administration has bought
into...but alcohol-fuel cars is a technology that works very well, and
we should convert all US vehicles as soon as possible, as this will
destroy the power of OPEC, before they suck all the wealth out of this
country. It will also stop Saudi Arabias' funding of world-wide Muslim
terrorism, by de-funding them.