Just saw Exon's quarterly statement - if the price of a barrel of oil is $100, then $30 is profit, with less the 2% being spent for renewable energy R&D. Yes they spent $35 of that barrel for taxes (here and foreign). I understand that Exon is in the oil business, not the renewable energy business - but- the argument to Drill -Drill - Drill is not the answer to our energy problem. I need a scorecard to know who the players are. Are the oil companies in bed with the auto industries. I cant remember any major improvement in the combustable engine since Henry Ford - maybe some minor gas(mpg) improvement recently, but nothing major. this is very confusing how we can send men to moon,atomic bomb, jet planes that can do almost everything except think (maybe thats just around the corner)We have come from wired wall phone to cell phones that do everything, yet the combustable engine remains the same,. If there is no way to improve the engine then give up and find a new way - wind, tide, sun, etc . Its all money, money, money, but thats the capitalists way, and i would not want to change that - maybe twick it a little. Now that i am venting my anger on big bus and who is who, and who is in bed with who. I seem to have read that in WWII we had jets that landed in the Philapeens, in typhoons, at 150 mph on two wheels and stayed on the runway. I drove a car with four wheel at 30 mph that if someone spit on the street i would slide off the road - oh maybe they a abs brakes which Detroit felt i did not need - dumb- maybe that 30 lb battery that lasted all of three or four years then went into the garbage dump, was the best that Detroit could do, but that was just about the time we sent a rocket ship to Mars which sent back picture for years yes years with a battery about the size of your finger nail. I am so confused

You have reasons to be confused, nothing makes sense in the american car industry. I saw a car magazine yesterday on the 2008 models and the american cars are exactly the same size, even bigger. All they advertise is how powerful is the motor and o/60 in X seconds. Where in the world do you have to go in such a rush that you have to be there in 6 or 7 seconds. Sometimes you think those things can not happen, but at the turn of the century GoodYear convinced the city of Los Angeles that busses where better than mass transit; today we see the consecuences.

nitehawk, I have been saying the same thing for years. Detroit wonders why Toyota and Honda started eating their lunch years ago. Are big oil and Detroit in an incestuous relationship? I think so. I think technologies have been invented and quietly bought up by big oil/auto. I know that sounds like I am big on conspiracy theories. I'm not. I fear that may be the reality. Detroit is now being kicked in the a** with a vengeance. I think this whole country will get kicked in the a** if we don't start getting our energy act together now.
I'm not sure offshore drilling is the answer. We're sitting on vast oil reserves in the interior. Furthermore, if we continue in this oil using vein, when will develop other technologies?
BTW, A friend just got back from the UK. He paid 11.50 per gal for gas.

when Toyota and Honda started giving all of the extras(free) that Detroit charged us for , you would have thought that Detroit would have got the message and tried to beat them but - no - they would not even give us seat belts until Ralph Nader made them do it -- they were the big three and had a lock on the American consumer - money money money i am still confused - remember when the govt made AT&T breakup - whats changed - one or two more and they will all be back together???

Guess it all goes back to "It's who you know and who ......" For proprieties sake I will not finish the saying. When will we all stand up and say "NO MORE!!!"??