[Minnie's Mate]

Blame is certainly not the purview of any one political group. We have had an "energy crisis" for more than 30 years. Yet we still demand gas hogs (my wife drives one and so do I). Laws have been enacted over the years. Mandatory mileage standards have been imposed on the auto industry. We have the acronym CAFE standards to prove it...no single political party loves acronyms more than any other in this country! When those laws were written, trucks were excluded and SUV's like my wife's are considered trucks so hers is exempt. It has the gas mileage to prove it.

Flex fuel is nothing new. Cars have been "green" for decades. When the CAFE standards were enacted, congress realized it wouldn't work and the automakers couldn't provide the product Americans want at the efficiency required so the law allows CAFE credit for flex fuel vehicles and alternative fuels. Every Ford Taurus ever built is a flex fuel vehicle. Every Ford Triton engine ever built is a flex fuel engine. So is my wife's gas hog of an SUV--Expedition (BTW, this one and the last one qualified as low emission vehicles even under California law). This is also why General Motors advertised for months that it had X# of millions of flex fuel vehicles already on the road. Of course at the beginning of the '08 model year they were charging $650 extra for flex fuel Suburbans and Impalas. Then folks caught on that they all are flex fuel and GM stopped charging $650 extra for that little metal flex fuel logo on the rear of the vehicle. But I digress.

Now Honda claims to have a fuel cell Accord. How much does it cost? How much does Hydrogen gas cost? Where will we get enough hydrogen to fuel all the fuel cell cars Americans will want (and we will want them, look how well the Prius sells)? What affect will all that extra water vapor being pumped into the atmosphere have on the environment? Will Phoenix become a tropical paradise? Will Atlanta become a sweat box (some already think it is)?

There is no simple, one size fits all answer to our energy needs and every solution presents its own set of issues that we will have to deal with. A century ago gasoline engine automobiles were considered the "clean" alternative to all that horse poop lying in the middle of the streets of our cities. Now, the exhaust is the poison in the air we breath and the destroyer of the ozone the protects us from the one truly endless source of energy on our planet...the sun. Oops, digressing again.

My son may be that 15 year old that solves the energy crisis. He is 11 and started working on the problem when he was in the second grade. It may take more than four more years though.