"Fortunately, Sulston won the last round and the HGP is freely accessible..."

Before Celera existed, the public HGP was already going to be freely accessible as a consequence of the Bermuda Accord and taxpayer funding (does that make it noble or just obligatory?). In the end, Celera gave away its assemblies (they're in GenBank) and its genome assembly software (it's in sourceforge (GPL)) (was that obligatory?).

I haven't read the patent application associated with his synthetic genome work, but I encourage people not to assume it is overbroad.

BTW, search uspto.gov for patents listing "venter, j craig" as an inventor & then do the same for "collins, francis" (head of the public HGP). Guess who has more patents?

Bottom line - it's about rpms, specific to your engine, not speed. I have a Civic hybrid and squeezed out 57mpg for a tank, mostly driving early morning/late night, which allowed me to speed up (a lot) on downhills and slow down (a lot) on uphills. Not a sociable (or very safe) way to drive, but very fuel efficient. So, fast down/slow up isn't a practical policy solution & evidence for speed limits is equivocal. What's left? I like the idea of mandatory dashboard display of instantaneous & average mpgs on new cars.