I know I’ve said this before about diesel cars in the U.S. but I’ll say it again; GM’s disasterous diesel cars of the 1980s turned Americans off of diesel, and we still haven’t moved on from that. Ford did try to market a diesel powered Lincoln in the U.S., with a BMW built engine, and even promoted it as such, but it wasn’t successful.

It’s unfortunate. Hopefully the U.S. will get over GM’s diesel debacle and give the platform another chance.

Look at Europe, Canada, Asia, and the rest of the world – with rare exception, nobody has cheap fuel like the good old U.S.A. Until the temporary aberration (soon to be repeated) of $4.00 per gallon gasoline during 2008, cheap fuel made the buying public relatively oblivious to the cost of fuel and, as a result, sales of trucks, SUVs and other large vehicles ballooned.

Moving to a higher fuel cost will cause many (if not most) consumers to look for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. This demand will cause the various automobile manufacturers to produce smaller cars and trucks in order to meet the demand. Over time, the aggregate impact of consumers moving to smaller vehicles will allow America to reduce its reliance upon imported oil and become more self-sufficient – never mind the environmental benefits that go along with the reduced fuel consumption.

Simple supply and demand economics – eliminating the need to regulate automakers to produce more fuel efficient vehicles, no CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy), etc.

Sure, nobody wants higher taxes, but in the long run everybody wins.

@Robert – Electric is a big chunk of the answer, but it’s only one of the three key elements in our renewal (through renewable resources). Natural gas and biofuels – derived in large scale from algae – will power long-distance vehicles in the very near future.