Guest Author - William Charles Vetter

We now find ourselves in an unprecedented point of time in history, for the first time ever the United States is seeing and living the reality that much of the rest of the world has been living with since the invention of the car; high fuel prices. If you have been to other countries then you have probably seen the difference in the cars that they drive versus the cars that we drive here. The basic difference is size and fuel economy, most European countries have gasoline prices that are double what we pay in the US. In London last year and traveling through the entire UK I saw many cars that are not available here. Some of these cars are marvels of efficiency, small in size and every bit as stylish as our US cars just smaller and lighter.

Fuel Prices Spur Sales of Efficient Cars
I do not see expensive gasoline prices as a bad thing. We use more oil than any other country in the world. Historically as fuel prices go up people become more interested in fuel efficient cars and then as the price of fuel goes back down, people go back to their big gas sucking cars. I don’t see higher gas prices as being all evil and not if it gets people to go to alternative fuels and save wherever possible. High fuel prices cause people to use less fuel and that is good for the country and good for the world. I'm a single person but I have 2 cars, 1 that gets 35mpg and one that gets 17mpg. I drive the little car 90% of the time, it’s all that I need to get around town. The other is a four wheel drive truck that I use for outdoor recreation.

What is the Best, and Most Efficient Car Available Today
In my opinion the best PZEV available today is the Honda GX, CNG powered car. It is a domestically built car which saves US jobs. You can fuel it at home for about $1.25 a gallon. It gets an EPA est 35mpg, the Toyota Prius gets an EPA est 46mpg but imported gasoline is twice the cost of CNG. The DX wins on economy. The DX has a 200 mile range and never needs to visit a gas station. You can drive in HOV lanes and you will qualify for local, state and federal subsidies and incentives. The list of cars that can do that today is very short. Over 90% of todays commuter driving can be done in a 100% CNG powered car. If it were indeed so, there would be a plethora of CNG car models available and we could virtually eliminate oil imports and call the troops home from Iraq, TODAY.

Honorable Mention to the Toyota Prius
The Prius still tops most people's lists of efficient cars, mostly, I'm sure because it's the darling of the Hollywood crowd. Many celebrities are seen driving in a Prius and so it's still the most popular PZEV available today. This is not necessarily good news, 3 years since it's intro and there is no challenger to the throne? Even Prius detractors admit that if a CNG Prius were produced it would be the most efficient ATPZEV available. Who knows maybe someone from Toyota will read this and they will announce such a car soon. If there are no challengers, how about an heir? A hydrogen fueled hybrid would be an efficient, zero emmisions vehicle without peer. The technology to do these things is available even as I am writing this.

What Would I Like to See
It would be excellent for hydrogen to become more widely available not hydrogen extracted from coal, natural gas or crude oil. Hydrogen created using solar or wind energy and water would provide an inexhaustible, renewable and inexpensive energy source that doesn’t use food crops or a laboratory to power cars. There is much that an energy company can do to provide renewable sources of clean energy. If they build it people will come. The oil companies today are what the stage coach companies were in the 1800's. It remains to be seen if they can lead, follow or be forced out of the way. My hope is for the former but I fear that it will be the latter. Oil companies are never going to become champions of energy conservation or energy policy change. It would be like Starbucks starting a nation wide campaign to get people to give up or reduce the amount of coffee they drink.

We Will Become Energy Independent
That day is coming. We have no choice, it is reality, it will be a great day when we can let the Mideast keep its oil and stop fighting wars over it. The price of oil will drop like a lead balloon. We have lost enough young people and our country is currently spending hundreds of billions of dollars to fight a war over oil. True independence is when we won't need them or their oil.

Please check out the link below. Today you can snow ski in the Desert...!
Guess where they got the money from?