I was watching "Living with Ed" last night on HGTV. It is a show about Ed Begley, Jr., whose is an active environmentalist, and his wife, who is not as much into it. There was a segment in the show where Ed met up with Jay Leno to see the latter's car collection. It was amazing to see some of his vehicles from the early 1900s that were way ahead of their time. One of the vehicles was from about 1910 and Jay noted that it passes current emissions standards. He noted that the car recycles the steam generated from the combustion in the engine to produce more power, so that there are very few emissions. Jay also had electric hybrid vehicles from the early part of the 20th century. After watching this segement, it was so hard for me to believe that hybrid vehicles are just now catching on in the 21st century. It makes me wonder where the technology fell apart in the middle part to the latter part of the 20th century, in terms of hybrids and more fuel-efficient vehicles. Why was there the foresight to manufacture vehicles that were fuel-efficient and created minimal emissions before global warming was even a phrase, while today there is often so much resistance to doing away with the gas guzzlers? Maybe the technology was always there but the car manufacturers did not see the consumers caring about it. After all, station wagons and then SUVs were the big sellers for many years and even today, many consumers will not buy anything other than an SUV.

In the show, Jay Leno mentioned that he is going to have hydrogen fuel cell technology where he houses his car collection. Perhaps with some star power like his, the world of vehicles run on alternative energy will really start to take off. It appears that his classic car collection provided him with the inspiration for exploring alternative energy in newer vehicles. Hopefully, Jay Leno's hydrogen work with spawn a new trend towards hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.