Excellent report!

TCHconn: If you research ORNLs activities, you'll find that despite your assumption that all they do is make nukes, they have a wide ranging scope of research such as supercomputers and neutron sources. Incidentally, they have the fastest "public" supercomputer and the strongest neutron source in the world.

Toyota gets a lot of help from the Japanese government and the three American auto companies still have yet to produce a real hybrid that is comparable to the Prius, Camry, etc.

Our dependence on oil is an issue of national security and economic stability!!! American auto companies are reluctant to venture into high-risk research areas due to risk of investment losses... they can barely stay afloat as it is. This is where DOE steps in. The group that published this report also develops new motor and power electronics technologies. The info in these reports is extremely valuable in determining where the current technology is and where the goals need to be set to beat it.
I'm glad to see that the funding was not just pooped away and that a very valiant effort was made.