The problem as I see it, akenaton, is that we are being presented with a false choice. Did you know that there are peole who run their cars on cooking oil that has been recycled from deep fat fryers from fast food restaurants? The fact is that the only reason we rely to the extent we do on petroleum and not on any of the other, perfectly good alternative fuels, is because the petroleum industry has a large and powerful lobby, and we have been convinced that petroleum is the only cost-efficient choice.

But if we factor in the cost in terms of the wars that we've fought for oil, and the environmental and health costs, and all of the government subsidies the US tax payers have provided the petroleum industry, I think we can say that petroleum is most definitely not the most cost-effective choice of fuels.