>>Soon? Seems like it is taking unreasonably long. We can clone a freakin sheep but we can't make a vehicle run efficiently on something other than gasoline?
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>We can already make diesel from coal, which we have a ton of, and it produces a cleaner diesel fuel with less green house gas. But no one one wants to do it because it will cost about $1.80 for a gallon of diesel and as soon as we start producing it the price of oil will drop because we don't need it. Then it won't be cost effective to produce it out of coal anymore and we will start using oil again. It's kind of like a catch 22.

Well the oil will run out eventually and as it gets in shorter supply coal and oil shale plus bio fuels all become more cost effective. I look forward to the day when oil isn't distorting politics so much.