Electric cars.
Some day - just not yet.

If you drive the highways of the west, where the distance between point "A" and point "B" may be hundreds of miles, it is a great gift of technology to be able to cruise at 75 miles per hour in a big, new car. The climate inside the car is perfectly controlled for your comfort. You are surrounded by a steel frame and airbags for safety. Your seat is comfortable and instantly adjustable for your greater comfort. The stereo plays your favorite CD. Radio - local or satellite - entertains or informs. Your speed is automatically maintained.

Just thinking of making the same trip in one of those golf cart size electric cars sends a chill down your back. They have barely enough power to run their tiny motor... much less all the comfort extras.

Why should this be? You see a train on a track parallel to your highway, some 100 cars pulled along by a few locomotives running in tandem. Here are thousands of tons pulled along at, sometimes, speeds greater than the speed limit of your highway. These locomotives are pulling with electric motors.

So, why are electric cars so under powered? The difference is the source of the electric power to operate the motor. The rail locomotive has a huge diesel engine, turning a huge generator which powers the electric motor. This is an inefficient system, but is necessary because the internal combustion engine derives its power through RPM. It can develop a lot of horsepower, once it gets up to speed. To start moving a load from a standstill requires a clutch - or an automatic transmission. It is impossible to build either capable of starting in motion a load of thousands of tons.

The electric car must use a battery to provide power to run the motor. Current battery technology is much improved, and will some day be better still. But, today's batteries, are seriously lacking.

A lot of people want to invent and own the breakthrough technology that will one day permit batteries that can store power enough to drive automobiles as well as do today's gasoline or diesel engines. One of these researchers will one day hit the jackpot. Maybe it will be nano technology. Maybe something else. But I believe it will come.

Real cars powered by electricity are coming. Soon I hope. In the meantime, let's drill, drill, drill. Let's keep the cost of gasoline and diesel down to help the economy thrive. To keep those dollars at home in the U.S.! To help fund those researchers working on new batteries.