Would it really matter which fuel is used for passenger cars?

[ColbertWatcher]

Poll question: Would it really matter which fuel is used for passenger cars?

I've been thinking about this lately.

The national conversation seems to be centered around where we get the oil from, not so much whether we should be using petroleum-based products, but country of origin. Certainly there have been some who want to expand the conversation to include alternative sources for fuel, but with the "drill at all costs" crowd buried up to their necks in tar sands the conversation does not stray far from the emotional talking points that remind people of Middle Eastern terrorists.

The most common sources for non-petroleum-based fuels are electricity, some form of biofuel, something compressed like CNG or air and hydrogen.

I'm from California so electricity is completely out of the question--the imaginary Enron-created "crisis" is still fresh in my memory. Which makes me wonder if the kind of market manipulation that Enron pulled with electricity in California in 2000 would simply be repeated for any other fuel source?

Does it even matter which fuel is used when the suppliers can play the same game Enron did no matter which fuel is on the market?