I totally agree, Kim.

The automakers can make all the hydrogen cars they want -- but where are you going to fll up? If you could buy one tomorrow, how far could you drive?

Geologists are now estimating that the world's oil reserves will run out in about 50 years. (Some estimates say much less, but I think they don't account for possible new sources.) That may sound like a long time, but it's pretty short to get rid of ALL uses of oil and convert economies to different types of fuel sources.

My Dad worked in the oil industry all his life. He used to fume and fulminate that the damn environmentalists wanted to change NOW and that it takes time to make the change -- now he fumes and fulminates that we haven't even really *started.*

There's a TON of money to be made in renewable energy! There's no reason big oil can't be the big not-oil energy companies of the future. But where's the innovation? Why so short-sighted that they don't make the investments now to leverage themselves to dominate the market later? They dabble a toe in every now and then, and whine that there aren't the tax subsidies they're used to, then spend more money trying to scrub up their corporate image, wasting all the (free) consumer goodwill they might generate by acting responsibly.

Their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were pioneers of industry that took risks -- my, how the blood thins in those overbred heirs.

Big oil needs to go on a tax diet; the industry has grown fat and bloated off billions of tax dollars that artificially reduce the price of gas, build the roads oil-based vehicles drive on, military expenditures to secure their oil sources, and more billions to clean up the pollution caused by oil and gasoline additives like MBTE. Bush wants tax dollars to subsidize hydrogen delivery systems (like gas stations) -- I say go right ahead, we need it! But take the money away from the old technology and stop propping it up! If we chipped away at those tax subsidies every year (and yes, gas prices would go up) and moved them to public transportation and renewal energy tax breaks, we might see some industry movement. In the meantime, like the corpulent sloth it is, Big Oil goes nowhere, and hangs on to a dying energy source.

By the way -- there's a $2,000 consumer tax credit if you buy a hybrid vehicle, that'll slowly reduce over the next few years to reward early adopters. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!