"For example, in our energy future “nuclear, solar, hydro and wind energy all will have growing roles in electricity generation, whereas the importance of coal and oil will decline,” explained Dirks. “But when we want to move a car, a truck or an airplane, there’s really only one way to do it – get the stuff out of the ground. Oil remains a relatively cheap source of energy that is so convenient its use overrides its considerable drawbacks in terms of air pollution, environmental concerns and national security.”
From Transportation is the Achilles Heel of Green Energy Efforts: ASU Expert (The expert is Gary Dirks, "renewable energy expert")
The article advocates research and technological implementation of solar power production of biofuels:
"The process is similar to photosynthesis, by which concentrated solar energy is used in conjunction with carbon dioxide and water to create hydrocarbons. In addition to creating combustible fuels like methanol and ethanol, additional processing can yield more traditional fuels like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
“The fuels that result from these processes will look, feel and perform just like what we pump into our cars today. They will use existing refineries to prepare fuel blends and existing gas stations to deliver the fuel to today’s cars,” he added.
Yeah, right. Might I point out that widespread expansion of nuclear power would provide plenty of electricity for plug-in hybrids, covering a lot of the road warriors, leaving only the train and plane sectors requiring liquid fuels? Everybody seems so focused on their particular solution that the benefits of a combined solution seem to escape them.
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