What's the motivation?

You know, it just occurred to me today, as I was contemplating filling up the tank before the big weekend.

What with the recent wailing and bemoaning by the Fed and State governments about all the money they stand to lose if there is a gas-tax moratorium this summer, I have to wonder:

Just what exactly is the government's incentive to really put any kind of time, effort, and/or money into the development of alternative fuels? Other than as a token sop to the environmentalists, what's really going to change as long as The Gov is making billions every year off of federal gas taxes to pay for "roads and infrastructure improvements?"

If a measley three months will "cost" a typical state $126 million, what would happen if a viable alternative fuel came on the market that reduced nationwide demand for petroleum-based fuels by, oh say, 30% or more?

And just how many patents, how many scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations are sitting in vaults, locked in basements, buried under hush money and endless litigation for just such a reason?

The government won't let us drill in ANWAR or the Gulf of Mexico, won't let us build more refineries, and yet pours millions into corn-based ethanol, the weak half-sister of biofuels. It's almost like they WANT the bio-fuel fad to fail, while keeping demand for oil high...

Nahhhhh.