[Citizen Blade]

Because it doesn't make sense to have an electric harvester or a farm tractor. Do you really equate your city driven car with those vehicles?

There is no one-size fits all solution for our energy issues. Reducing our dependency on foreign oil (so we can stop indirectly financing terrorism) will involve electric cars, nuclear power, wind and solar energy, more drilling at home, more public transit etc.

Reading threads like this can be disheartening. People seem to be unwilling to accept the fact that we will need to change our approach to energy consumption in the coming years.

[Cronos]

You hit the nail on the head -- there is no one size fits all. There is nothing wrong with an SUV per se -- IF IT IS USED FOR WHAT IT'S MEANT FOR, namely an off-road vehicle. Ditto for harvesters or tractors: both are gas guzzlers, but they need to be.

we need to change our consumption to more need basis -- if you're a construction man and use your truck daily to haul goods, great, that's the perfect use. If you're a city slicker and only go from point A to B in a city, you really ought to have the good sense to take something else.

if you DON'T have the good sense, then you invite government legislation which will punish the good and the bad. It's just like the Investment Banks -- no legislation, but it got abused. The better banks like Goldman didn't abuse leverage and they survive, but they got hit by the same legislation and became a regular bank like everyone else.