Supply and the Man.(Column)

Byline: Dutch Mandel

Without sounding too much like an Earth Liberation Front soldier, the last time I wrote of automobility and the planet, you virtually clubbed me like a baby harp seal in the spring hunt.

The e-mails and letters-three-to-one in favor of gobbling gasoline at a prodigious rate, thank you very much-made me feel as if I were on the outside looking in.

I'm not a pleaser. I do, however, want you to think about something: No matter how much you'd like to believe to the contrary, all resources are finite. All of 'em. That includes air, potable water, oil and Budweiser. All of it can eventually run out.

And still, some of you insist that there's more than enough oil to sustain mankind-it lies somewhere beneath Africa, Canada and even here in the good ol' US of A. Yes, there's loads, but it is finite; it will run out. That may take 100 or 200 years, but someday it will go away.

What will you do to prolong the supply?

This is not a flip question. Plenty of people smarter than I are tackling that question. Ask custom-motorcycle builder, reality-television pioneer, racer and all-around good car guy Jesse James where he stands on sustainability, ...