Massive improvements in fuel economy were made in the 1970s in response to the OPEC crisis at the time. Nothing new has happened now for almost two decades. Due to the popularity of SUV's, which count as trucks with lower standards, overall U.S. fuel economy is at the lowest point in 20 years. Perhaps they are the ones encouraging our representatives to block improvements. They are even pretty spiffy looking.
People believe that electric energy is clean energy.
It looks pretty clean by the time it gets to our homes. However, the U.S. is decades behind in producing electricity efficiently. What's worse is that the rest of the world wants to increase its own power usage. Clean energy technology needs to be available both for ourselves and the Third World. The potential extreme effects of global warming are not inevitable.