Crossing the Energy Divide: Moving from Fossil Fuel Dependence to a Clean-Energy Future

6. Liquid Fuels: The Hard Reality

The American love–hate relationship with cars has made motor vehicles the main focus of energy issues in the public consciousness. That has created a precariously misleading picture of the overall energy challenge, because it distracts policymakers from the main needs of the transitional bridge.

That’s not to say motor vehicles aren’t central to American life, culture, economics, and environmental decline. They are. The anguished debate about whether the U.S. “Big Three” automakers should be bailed out made that clear. But that debate was also a huge diversion from a more fundamental reality: There’s no future in spending a large part of our limited time and resources making further refinements in the obsolescent ...