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Read this editorial on a technology blog, while I think that emission restrictions are the biggest killer to American Automakers, I wanted to see all your thoughts.

I don't smoke and I never have. I can't say as I've felt the temptation to ever try that particular vice, especially given the cost these days. 50 years ago my avoiding that lifestyle choice would have put me in the minority, and if I'd dared asked a smoker to step outside or made any implications about what their habit was doing to my lungs... well, that wouldn't have gone over well.

Today, of course, such questions and expectations are the norm, with legislation forcing smokers into the cold and science showing that what comes out of their mouths isn't great for passers by. But why am I talking about cigarette smoking on a gadget blog? In a few decades this is what it's going to be like to drive a car with internal combustion, a life full of exorbitant taxes, constant inconveniences, and state-sponsored attempts at inducing shame among those who would dare putter around with an engine that casts off 70 percent (or more) of its energy as waste.

The internal combustion engine hasn't become such a hugely popular means of propulsion for particularly complex reasons. At the dawn of the automobile there were many different ways of powering a car, from steam to gunpowder to, yes, electric cars with limited range. Gasoline didn't win out because there were pump stations on every corner (there weren't) or because it was scientifically created to be the perfect fuel (it wasn't). It won because it was cheap -- nobody wanted it.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/03/s...nal-combustion