Alternative Fuel Update: Driving lean, driving green

Many Europeans pay more than $5 a gallon for gasoline. If our fuel were as pricey, you'd shell out $112.50 to fill a Ford Explorer. Got your attention?

In the United States, we've traditionally been insulated from high fuel costs--unlike the rest of the globe. But this past spring, gasoline prices soared unchecked by either government regulators or petroleum-industry discretion to better than $2 a gallon. Whether this was a temporary market condition, an industry ripoff, or a glimpse of our future is hard to say. But it certainly got people refocused on gas supplies, costs, and alternatives.

Gasoline producers blamed intentional supply hiccups by Iraq, oil-refinery configuration problems, the higher cost to produce patented-process environmentally friendly gasoline blends, and even California's electrical blackouts. In spite of these conditions, "The Wall Street Journal" reported Chevron's first quarter 2001 net income, for example, jumped 54 percent (to $1.6 billion from $1.04 billion a year earlier).

Fuel-industry critics, however, point to billion-dollar consolidations between former oil-market competitors and new OPEC cooperation as the cause of increasing prices and tighter oil inventories. Also at odds with higher pump prices are the more benign political environment and technological advances that make it cheaper and easier to locate and mine raw petroleum.

Whatever the price spike's cause, there's definitely a rekindled concern about fuel efficiency, which also seems to have only added to the cooling effect on truck and sport/utility vehicle sales. We spoke to car-company experts to get a handle on some future tech that would wring greater economy and lower emissions out of new vehicles. Here's an update on what they're working on.