Any modernization of our transportation fleet will take time. Certainly more than the 2025 deadline set by the president. So for all the hype hybrids have been receiving of late, they are probably not the solution. Nor are ethanol fuel alternatives, a transportation fuel made from corn or other agricultural products, likely to change the way we power our cars anytime soon. These fuel alternatives are nothing new. For decades people have been talking about distilling energy from grass and corn. It’s a nice idea to subsidize farmers to produce corn we can use, rather than subsidizing them not to grow food.

But President Bush pledged to make the use of such ethanol practical and competitive within 6 years. It will take twice that long to produce enough ethanol to go around. So how do we achieve the goal of reducing our reliance upon foreign oil? The real silver bullet is diesel-powered cars.

Innovations in diesel engines have dramatically reduced oil dependence in Europe. Nearly half of all car sales in Europe last year were diesel powered. If we followed suit, we could reduce our dependence on oil more quickly. The infrastructure is already available. Gas stations would just have to switch over. Nothing in the oil refining process would dramatically change.

This technology is available to us right now. If we embraced it, we could cut oil consumption by 15 to 20 percent right off the bat. A lot of people have questioned the sincerity of the president’s pledge to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. I guess we’ll know soon enough. If the president is indeed sincere, he’ll start talking about diesels.