Insult to Injury

I know I can get preachy to the point of whininess, especially when it comes to the seeming inability to overcome the excesses of American life, but I'm nothing to Detroit. The New York Times wrote an article, last week, reporting on the wailing set up by American car manufacturers because congress wants to raise their fleets' mean mpg from 27.5 (22.2 for trucks) to 35. They're going along with it, now that they can't see a way out of it, but I can see their beady eyes focusing on flex-fuel to get out of it. And worse, Bush plans to veto the bill anyway (mostly because of the gas tax hike). We still pay way less for gas than Europe, though.

What would I do? Well personally, if given all the resources I needed, I'd get a car with the best gas economy I could find, and wire it to also run on solar. I'd also put one of those strips on every cell phone on the planet, and in the corner of south-facing windows, but that's for another day.