I spent more than a decade in the transportation industry, serving as marketing director for a holding company that owned numerous commercial vehicle manufacturing companies. From 1996 through 2006, we sat through endless meetings with suppliers urging us to move toward alternative fuel and electric and hybrid vehicles. While we played around with it - and I was personally responsible for selling hundreds of all-electric vehicles to a major fleet customer - we recognized that there were many issues that still need to be worked out with alternative fuels and power supply systems.
Although one could say I'm politically conservative, I'm also an environmentalist. I could never grasp the benefit of creating all-electric vehicles that produce no emissions BUT require nightly recharging (from electric companies that primarily get power from coal-burning power plants). The driver feels great because he's not polluting the air when he drives - but he's polluting the air when he recharges. Biofuels also make consumers feel good, but don't relieve much of anything from an environmental standpoint. Until hydrogen fuel cell technology advances, I doubt we'll see any real change in how we get around.
CBS News did a fascinating piece last weekend about biofuels. You can read the entire story here, but this line jumped out at me:
"Another problem is that refining some crops, like corn, into fuel can produce more greenhouse gases than simply using gasoline in cars in the first place."
While it's promising that people are thinking about these things, there are no quick-fixes or easy answers to our fuel situation right now.
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