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This may not be a popular idea among many here, but the consumer had better push-back on the big enviro and big oil lobbys if any of the interim solutions (like bio-Diesel) are to have a fighting chance. I don't mean go back to the 1960's pollution standards, but an affordable compromise means the average Joe or Joesephine can afford transportation, say, a small 3 cylinder turbo Diesel with 1998 emission standards (no blu-tec or eurea tanks). BTW, big oil would like nothing more than bio-Diesel to just go away.
The same is true IMO for electric generation... our laws hamstring the big utilities with tons of enviro restrictions in developed nations, yet we complain when energy prices go through the roof. On the flip-side, developing nations such as China and India are bringing up half megawatt (largely unregulated and very filthy) coal fired power plants at the alarming rate of 1-2 per week! Didn't we all see the views from the China Olymics and the air that needs a knife to cut through? That was after many big polluting plants were closed down just before the games, to minimize the visual impact. We are all in this big ole bubble called the earth's atmosphere, it doesn't seem reasonable that my neighbor can throw his trash into the same lake that I am not allowed to even swim in... yet we eat fish from and all drink from that same lake.
I think a sensible electricty solution is twenty years away (maybe laser initiated fussion-fission hybrid plants?), and we need something to bridge the tecnology gap. That is, unless the technology is still-born because of the unpopular word 'fission'.
There's going to have to be some compromises made on the enviro front, IMO.
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