Mark Twain once quipped that, "Everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it." Seems to me that his observation could be aptly applied today to our national attitude toward gasoline prices. While consumers continue to fume about high prices at the pump and politicians keep proposing plans to "end our dependency on oil," nothing is really done to solve the problem.

You might have thought we would have gotten serious about this following the Arab oil boycott in 1973. If you’re too young to remember that, ask your grandparents. Back then the problem wasn’t the price of gas but the fact you couldn’t get it at any price. Israel and the Arab states were at war. The United States supported Israel in that conflict, and in retaliation, the Arab oil cartel withheld its oil. Within weeks it was almost impossible to get gas, and America took on the appearance of an oil starved Third World nation.

Red flags were displayed at a gas station to signify "no gas" and motorists used what little they still had in their tank cruising around in a frantic search for a station flying a green one. They were few and far between. Drivers actually followed delivery trucks to their destinations. Once a green flag went up, it attracted motorists like ants to a picnic table. The lines stretched for blocks and as you inched closer to the pump you kept your fingers crossed, hoping the pumps wouldn’t run dry before you got there. Some drivers became so desperate that they left their cars parked at a gas station with a red flag, planning to return for it when gasoline arrived.

You would think that we would have learned from that experience. For a while it seemed as if we did. When the Detroit auto manufacturers stubbornly continued to market big cars, the Japanese took advantage of the situation and invaded our shores with stylish Hondas and Toyotas that promised to give up to 50 miles on a gallon of gas. Eventually, even the slow learners in Detroit started to turn out 4 and 6 cylinder models and "Miles Per Gallon" became a key selling point.

Even the government took some action and President Jimmy Carter created the Synthetic Fuel Corporation. It was directed to develop new, cost-effective fuels from our nation’s vast sources of coal, shale and agricultural resources. The goal was to end America’s dependency on foreign oil and to insure that we could never again be held hostage by the Arab nations.

But the sheiks decided to turn the faucet back on. They obviously needed the money, not for the betterment of their own people, but to support their personal opulent lifestyles. Suddenly there was no more shortage. Happy days where here again and eventually the station wagon, once the status symbol of a stylish suburban family, was replaced by the even larger and more powerful gas-guzzling SUV. Efforts to develop alternative fuels were placed on the back burner and experiments with electric and hybrid cars were curtailed.

However, there may be a glimmer of hope on the horizon. In 2008 the Smart Car is coming to America. They’ve been popular in Europe for almost a decade and they were introduced in Canada last year. They remind me a bit of the original Volkswagen "bug", tiny, almost toy-like two-seat coupes that look as if they should be wound up with a key.

They’ll never replace the family car – for one thing there’s no back seat for the kids – but they have found a niche in Europe as a second car, particularly for city dwellers and commuters. For one thing, you can park three of them head on toward the curb in the space that it takes to part one normal car. For another, and most importantly, they get 60 miles to the gallon and there’s a battery-powered version soon to be introduced that will go 140 miles without recharging. And, oh, yes, they sell for less than $12,000.

I doubt, however, that they’ll catch on here in a country that loves its big and powerful cars, but perhaps they will serve to dramatize the need to develop alternate fuels or battery powered vehicles. Eventually, that will be the only way to end our dependency on Arab oil just as the development of synthetic rubber served to replace natural rubber when the Japanese cut off the supply at the beginning of World War II. At that time it took less than a year for the United States to perfect the polymer chemistry and construct the plants necessary to manufacturer a synthetic substitute. Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder what happened to that kind of "can-do" American spirit.