How far away is the United States from achieving energy independence?
JW: Well, it depends on what you mean by energy independence. Some people mean not importing anything, but I think that’s a bad definition. Independence has to do with control, and avoiding other people being able to control your behavior. … I think the combination of electricity and liquid fuels will make it possible to do that relatively quickly. You’re going to have plug-in hybrids on the road [and] in dealer showrooms from General Motors in 2010, which is two years from now. Toyota is going to have one that doesn’t have quite so powerful a battery, but they are talking about the same timeframe, and those are the two biggest automakers in the world. Also, we’re progressing on moving beyond corn-based ethanol and moving into using cellulosic feedstocks for either ethanol, butanol or other types of alternative liquid fuels. If you work on these all together … things can move a lot more quickly. Indy: So you see reasons for hope? JW: Yeah. We need to get going. We need to stop sitt
