After watching the NOVA feature, Car of the Future,
I’m now more convinced that, although biofuels could be part of the
alternative energy solution, it’s more imperative to leapfrog to plugin
hybrids, or better yet, electric vehicles altogether. Biofuels are not
practical in the long run and it only shifts the problem. It’s like
stacking a deck of cards with Jokers.
With the food shortage driving global prices to record highs, biofuels are now getting a bad rap. Roger Cohen dispels the biofuels myths, but still it’s obvious to me that burning crops that could otherwise be fed to those who are starving
(as well as livestock) would be used to feed machines just doesn’t
compute ethically and economically on a grand scale. It’s true that
biofuels would help to minimize pollution and CO2 emissions without
having to radically alter the transportation industry, but it’s just
another excuse to delay the much needed shift that we ought to have
done decades ago.
My bet for an immediate and long-term solution would be a combination of the efficiency gains of the Hypercar® and electric vehicles, like the Tesla Roadster. The oil industry, car companies, the government, consumer ignorance, and vested interests may have killed the Electric Car, but I’m optimistic that it would make a comeback when we most need it.
I
hope celebrities, athletes, and all rich people would start buying and
flaunting Tesla Roadsters so that it would eventually drive the cost
down and prove to the other car manufacturers that the revenge of the
Electric Car is at hand.
In the meantime, it’s time for us
Americans to wake up to the fact that our individual choices impact
what the car manufacturers produce. It’s a chicken or the egg thing. I echo what the Car Talk guys had lamented, who needs a friggin’ 500 horse-power engine?