McCain should give credit where credit is due and call it the “Shipstone Prize”. Read your Heinlein, folks. A great name with which to publicize the prize.
Prizes do NOT require giving up patent rights, royalties, etc. What they do is use the promise of an immediate and large reward to insure maximum effort is made. They are useful.
On the conservation front: Since the guvvamint buys large-sized fleets of vehicles, it should specify nothing but full-sized sedans/SUVs that have real good performance and at least 35mpg in the city. “If you build them we will buy them and you can name your own price” produces results
and those results will be available elsewhere as well. Much better than mandating CAFE.
On the supply front: Let refiners ignore those silly antiturst laws and fix prices for a while. 30 to 35 years. They will buy any and all domestic/contiguous state crude oil and similar refineable substances at $80 to $90 a barrel. That kind of guaranteed income will produce a surplus while lowering the current overall price of oil.
Opportunity is knocking/
