The development of affordable "green" cars and trucks - electric vehicles or hybrids designed to dramatically curb the nation's reliance on fossil fuels - is supposed to be a primary goal for the Obama administration and a number of government and industry leaders. But what about diesel-burning vehicles that already get more than 70 miles a gallon?

Yes, you read that right. There are already vehicles on the road - nice vehicles, not bread boxes with weed-eater motors on wheels - that get better than 70 miles to a gallon of diesel fuel. Only, you can't buy one here in the United States. More on that later.