Ignoring the presidential big oil conspiracy theory and the 1980's bred fear of nuclear power, Repo is partially right towards the end of his post. Hydrogen fuel for transportion is not a mature technology and at this point in time is still prohibitivly expensive, but there's no shortage of research and funding for it either. The fact that Honda and GM are making plans to develop hydrogen powered cars is very telling.
I found
this article from Wired News that goes into some of the details of renewable fuels. My predictions: hydrogen will be viable soon, as will ethanol and natural gas powered automobiles. Biodiesel prices will be competetive with petrodiesel in the years to come, hybrid cars will be the norm, and federal emission standards will become ever more stringent. Despite the blathering alarmists that push these technologies they are not bad ideas.
How anybody can fault the president for making energy policy a cornerstone of his administration I cannot understand. Often times when the president pays lip service to an idea it gives it just the kick it needs to take off in the collective consiousness. If the president today told the American people to carpool to work you can bet that tomorrow there'd be a million or more people giving it a try for the first time. Bush can't lower gas prices all by himself, but he can use his office to pressure automakers, oil companies, and electric companies to improve their products and services. It wouldn't be long before his leadership had an effect.