Since we have come to the end of cheap oil, it is time to plan for the future.

A problem with heat engines is that they are only about 30% efficient. This is not because the oil companies are in cahoots with the car companies, but because of thermodynamics, a branch of physics. Even if we can make ethanol cheaper than it is, we will waste about 70% of it. And it takes more energy to make ethanol than one can get out of it. So it doesn't look very promising. On the other hand, electric motors can be about 98% efficient, and electric motors can become generators when a vehicle is braking.

We should consider switching to personal trolleys that we can drive right into our garages. To generate the needed electricity, we can use nuclear power, solar power, wind power, or hydroelectric power. Trolleys can be made much safer than autos. A trolley can be automatically switched onto tracks leading to a destination. It can be sent to a distant parking garage without a driver. It can use a laser beam to keep itself at a safe distance from a preceding trolley. No one has to steer it.

The personal trolleys that I have in mind will not look like the old streetcars. The wheels will be as far apart as the wheels on our autos. And they can look much like our autos. Perhaps a hot conductor buried between the tracks would be the safest. The destination desired can be typed into the trolley's computer when the driver is ready to go.

For long distance travel, we should consider a large trolley that resembles a small cruise ship and would carry personal trolleys. Our present interstate highways could be converted to tracks about 25 feet apart. At a station, the personal trolleys would drive off one side of the carrier trolley just before the arriving trolleys drive onto the other side. One could dine, watch a movie, frequent a lounge, or sleep in one's own car aboard the carrier.

Nuclear power has had a rather safe history in this country, and France has used it very successfully for most of its power generation for a long time now. The cost of our nuclear power plants has been high because all of our plants are different. By now we ought to be able to decide on a safe plant design that can be duplicated as often as needed. This will hold down design costs, and when an improvement is made to one plant, it can be made to all. Maybe some day we will begin to use the South Pole to store the nuclear waste.

Global warming will become a much larger problem the more we burn fossil fuels. All the forms of power suggested at the beginning of this article can be used without adding to the greenhouse effect. The longer we stick with oil from the Middle East, the richer our radical enemies will become, and the poorer we become. We are funding our own demise, and ruining our planet. This is a very costly and dangerous course to follow. There is nothing to lose and much to gain by changing directions, and vehicles, now.