Here’s an interesting observation about Germany. I didn’t see a single SUV or truck in the first 3 days I was there. When I did, they were in a great minority to the other vehicles. People rode light rail, bicycles, and drove smartcars along with some larger sedans. But other than the occasional work truck or van, you saw very few vehicles used out of class (ie: single woman in suburban).

It’s really a cultural thing. We’d probably change should we pay a real price for fuel and become forced to modify how we live. It’s why I’m not a big fan of the whining about gas prices and using it as a political tool. We’re getting off cheap at $4/gal.

Frankly, it’s astonishing to me how many people buy pickup trucks (and then virtually never actual do anything that would require a truck). My father-in-law has a 2004 Silverado 2500HD for hauling the horse trailer, and it’s got 11K miles on it. My wife’s car is in the shop right now, so we’re using the truck as a daily driver, and it absolutely guzzles the gas. It’s huge, doesn’t fit in most parking spaces, and is remarkably unwieldy.

But it’s good at hauling the horse trailer, so that’s why we have it - and that’s why it sits unused most of the time.

By this estimate, nearly 20,000 manufacturing jobs would be created in Ohio with some investment in wind and solar power:
http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/atf/cf/%7B3637E5F0-D0EA-46E7-BB32-74D973EFF334%7D/REI-OHIO-summary.pdf