"I drive a new Google!"

There is change in the air…and I’m not talking only about the change that will come when America elects a Democratic President this fall. Yes, of course, his election means we will finally quit dismantling Iraq and start rebuilding America. That's a change we all seek. But many facets of our national infrastructure are calling desperately and are in immediate need of attention. Some are obvious like bridges and highways in need of repair.

But there are other challenges not as well known.

Consider this example: An engineer friend drove his Toyota Prius from Georgia to California and, while there, converted his car to a Plug-in-Hybrid-Vehicle, a PHEV. He drove the car across country as a typical hybrid and got 40 mpg. On the return trip, the car, now a PHEV, got 90 mpg! On that return trip, each night he plugged the car into a standard AC outlet to recharge its batteries. So efficient was it on the return trip that the car only consumed two tanks of regular gasoline. When I last checked, he was still driving the car as a commuter and for business purposes, and getting 125 mpg in around town driving when the battery kicks in more often!

Imagine the impact on America’s electric transmission grid when millions of Americans, tired of exorbitant gas prices at the pump, switch en mass to PHEV automobiles. Will our electric utilities be ready for the surge of demand on an electric transmission grid terribly outdated and in need of modernizing and expanding?

Google’s founders recognize a good investment when they see one and have recently invested $10 million in developing PHEV technology. Google, a company created just a decade ago and now the world’s number one Internet search engine, may soon influence the type of car you drive.

And I haven’t even mentioned the potential of nanotechnology. Some are predicting carbon nanotubes will replace silicon-based chips in our computers by 2015, providing an exponential increase in speed and storage capacity.

The price of oil will continue to rise – probably to $180 a barrel before it settles down (Inflation will lead it there; how else did you think we would pay for the Iraq war?) But the high prices will have the effect of stimulating good old American ingenuity in ways we cannot yet imagine.

A large number of new millionaire entrepreneurs will emerge soon as innovative Americans harness all the new technologies in ways we cannot imagine.

I can’t wait to call my neighbor and say, “Hey, I’m driving a new Google.”