I wouldn't be so sure about that.

It's hard to jumpstart something when there is no company history or profit pool. The oil industry has had good reason to suppress innovation until recently. Those with the greatest profit pool from which to conduct R and D had little reason to do so. This is changing.

Those with the greatest profit pool will always try to invest it in something that would get them ahead of their competitors. Imagine if some other company invented a highly efficient engine that could get 100 mpg off of ethanol (or about 120 mpg off of regular gas) when put in a standard SUV. Think about what would happen to the current automakers. Even if one of the major companies bought the engine, all of the others would be doomed for the time being. That's why all of the companies would have an interest in trying to develop something like that.

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"It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary"

-- Ludwig von Mises