Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Amory Lovins. See the interview of Lovins in yesterday's WSJ. It appears in "The Journal Report" section, yesterday's dealing with the automotive industry. He discusses the matter of boosting fuel efficiency with lighter cars, and says that the debate about whether the world is running out of oil is beside the point, the point being that we can radically reduce our dependency on oil by building more efficient cars.

Lovins has a think-tank in Colorado known as the Rocky Mountain Institute. Its website shows some original thinking going on in that place.

One quote from the Lovins interview:

"One Detroit expert told me in 10 years you'll probably be able to drive home your efficient Chinese car from Wal-Mart."

Here is a link to a full blown article by Lovins on lighter cars.

Elsewhere in this section of the WSJ there is an article on how China, with its under-developed automobile energy delivery system, is in position to leap frog the US with fuel cell technology. Reminds me of how Eastern Europe, when the Soviet Union fell and those countries were open to a free market, decided to ditch their antiquated wire-bound telephone systems and go straight to cellular technology, effectively leap-frogging the US, which has so much invested in our poles, analog switches, and copper wire.

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