The car industry can build more efficient vehicles, and is in fact doing so. So, why don’t we buy more of them? Because, as I have said a million times, gasoline is basically free. Despite all the whining, gasoline is as cheap now as it has ever been, on an inflation-adjusted basis. It is the cheapest fluid you can buy at a gasoline station. Water is three bucks a litre, fer cryin’ out loud. As long as gasoline is free, we’re going to keep on driving all by ourselves to work in a 2,000 kg truck, or picking up little Brittney at Havergal [local private school] in a 500-horse SUV, engine idling while you wait, air-con set at full cryogenic.