I am generally inclined to agree - that the best (in terms of technology, emissions, economics and energy security) route is probably internal-combustion+electric transmission/battery hybrid cars. We do though need to be careful about the feedstock of choice for the fuel production, as not everyone has the land and time to make their own.

Companies operating in free markets will pick the lowest costs of production and or highest value end markets above ethical considerations. This *could* lead to people in neighbouring states paying more for basic foodstuffs as it becomes more efficient to plant fuel than food crops. Or because crops are bought to use as feedstock for alcohol rather than food for people.

Personally I'm hoping for better bio-gas fuels. petrol/gasoline engines can run quite easily on gas as long as they have good enough injectors and hardened valve seats.

Dual mass flywheels, high pressure / common-rail injection, variable geometry turbochargers, all have had a catastrophic effect on diesel reliability. I have driven several old-school diesels to very high mileages but when it was time to change car most recently I bought a petrol car to convert to gas.. as I no longer trust modern diesel technology

I suspect that neither "believe" nor "think" mean what they understand them as, either....

I'm European. We have different views over here, while still being free-market capitalists.

Our EU parliament and commissioners have been working for a while to even up the regulatory shortfall by assessing the likely economic benefits per product of not complying with environmental legislation and adding that cost as an import tax, the idea being to require suppliers making products for EU markets to produce them to EU environmental standards, or pay a tax that would be designed to cancel out the economic benefits of using polluting options.

Ways it would work include factoring in the electrical cost and taxing a carbon charge on the difference between net pollution per KwH here and per KwH there. We're planning to levy the same idea on aviation to the EU, at which point it wil suddenly become news in the USA as I dont imagine your long-haul airlines will be very pleased. You could do it too, based mainly at China.

When you;re as big as either the EU collectively or the USA singly, little things like pre-existing agreements can be overridden or overwritten, its just a matter of willpower and courage.

Principally that in a society where slaves are cheap but firewood or coal are expensive, steam engines aren't a priority

A tiger, in Africa?

the generator causes parasitic drag when under load from electrical usage. More efficient headlamps > lower current > less generator drag > same speed with accelerator under less pressure > improved fuel economy

or blow out the CCD in the speed camera

Electrical efficiency in cars matters. I keep detailed brim-to-brim fuel records going back years for my car. Over the last 18 months as LED aftermarket technology improved I have changed all bulbs bar the main and dipped-beam headlamps and some inaccessible panel backlights over to LED. I have seen a detectable improvement in fuel economy (about 1.5%) from knocking barely 50 watts off the power load. I am pretty sure it starts better too, as the battery is in an improved state of charge perhaps.

If you're stupid enough to pay $600 for an unproven first generation product you deserve everything you get

Thats just bad design or outdated equipment (newsflash - trolleybuses last 50 years as unlike a diesel bus they dont shake themselves to pieces). It would be technically trivial to have the trolleypoles auto align themselves and even switch wires while moving.

" Any time the driver needs to make a 90 degree turn he has to get out of the bus and manually switch lines. Any time the driver needs to make a 90 degree turn he has to get out of the bus and manually switch lines."

it should be trivial to equip the trolley poles with servo motors and optical sensors so they drop as the bus pulls away from the wires and raise again when they are under another set of wires. With accurate enough sensors and actuators this could be done at cruise speed

You say that, but the service life of a battery is probably a lot less than the service life of a power line for a sliding contact... as well as the replacement cost being higher and the technology level being higher, which causes other issues...

For what its worth the theory about it being a jet contrail seen end-on appearing to be a vertical launch column (easy viewpoint for the helicopter, never seen from the ground) is now starting to convince me

So actually testing it in daylight, within eyesight of a massive population centre, is quite a good way of denying responsibility or creating doubt....

Tactically, anything thats so improbable to be unthinkable should be high on the list of things to try first.