Actually, strict bright-line artificial limits like this are a great way to encourage innovation by using regulatory power to harness market forces to achieve a

Actually, strict bright-line artificial limits like this are a great way to encourage innovation by using regulatory power to harness market forces to achieve a well-defined goal. In this case, the goal of MPG standards is actually not CO2 emissions or health, but using less oil. The international market for oil is quite broken and easily manipulated, and the global resources of oil are limited. I absolutely support government-funded research into improving automobile technology. As you say, clean energy is critical. The obvious place to focus energy research these days is on storage technologies from small scale chemical batteries to large-scale potential-energy solutions. We have the technology to generate clean energy relatively cheaply today, but we're missing the storage solutions to even out cycles in wind and solar power, and the continent-scale electricity grids we need to efficiently distribute the power to where it's needed.