It's called money. If there's seemingly no good reason for something just follow the money trail. Brazil uses sugar cane which, IIRC, is something like 7 times more efficient at producing ethanol than corn. So, why aren't we growing those crops? Switchgrass is another solution, etc. But the resistance is mainly at the corporate and government levels which has the people benefiting from the current status quo. The only thing that will spur faster development is higher demand and forced compliance for auto manufacturers. I've read reports of them actually burying cars. They come out with hybrids to "comply" with regulations regarding overall fuel efficiency, and then they don't market them or push their sales. This results in an appearant "lack of demand". So they pull the vehicles off the market saying that there is no demand.

What I find strange about the whole thing is exactly what you say... why aren't these massive energy companies buying up solar/wind/water/biofuel energy generation companies. They are basically burning themselves out of the market. I suppose their pockets are so deep they can afford to do it when it makes economic sense (let others take the plunge and get into the market when you can make a killing - this was discussed on the Mag Light LED market thread).

Going forward, we should all buy vehicles that are hybrid. If demand skyrockets for high mileage cars and trucks using E85, BioDiesel, Hydrolic compression, Batteries, hydrogen, HHO gas, and other hybrids and demand falls for non-hybrids, guess what will happen?

We should stick to our guns and just waitlist for such vehicles, lower our energy consumption, be more efficient with what we do use, and economics will kick in much faster than a "couple of decades". The real issue at hand is getting the addicted American people off of our crazy energy binge. One other note, ethanol is subsidized to the tune of 50 cents a gallon since it's not taxes the same as gas. That, to me is a good thing and it should go even farther. But I've read some reports that producing ethanol from corn is actually pretty inefficient compared to other crops. My wife's dad might just be a sugar farmer one of these days. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />