Space Age Technology

I saw on the news that the average price for a gallon of gasoline is $1.72. My hoopty needs the premium go-juice, so my cost is about a dime higher. The seem to think that we'll either go higher than two bucks per gallon or they'll dip into something called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to maintain current prices.

It's too late for this summer, but it seems like so many of the problems in the U.S. would be solved if we took all the money we're talking about spending on a trip to Mars and got full-blown serious about public transportation and...yes...SOLAR POWER technology.

In fact, I saw Bill Clinton in an interview after he left office and he said that the best thing America could do in the next 20 years was to get as serious about solar power as they did about the space race in the 60's.

Now, obviously, his administration did nothing towards that end, even in the lame duck years (even with the eco-conscious Al Gore riding shotgun), but there's a reason that it's political suicide to get on that bandwagon...could someone please tell me why that's the case? In my feeble way of thinking, it makes sense.