Incentives and taxes, how to eliminate Saudi dependence
Unlike some semi-libertarians here I am purely a pragmatist or as Den Beste describes it, an engineerist. I use what works. The $3 a gallon market driver (really $2 these days) is fine but insufficient. Toyota is better run than GM and leads the way in hybrids. GM survives mainly on loan revenue, not car sales margins. Big labor has them screwed. The US govt needs to help incentivize hybrids as a viable technology. Hybrids could MORE than eliminate our dependence on ME oil. Set mileage requirements, give tax breaks for R&D and capital investment and award a $1B prize for the most cars at a certain MPG sold to the public.
Oh, and let that wind farm be built in Cape Cod off Ted Kennedy's (and my) view.