We recently profiled Herman Wouk, who rightfully belongs on the list of great American writers (Jewish or not). You wouldn't see his brother Victor on the list of the great American inventors (Jewish or not). Perhaps you should.

While Wouk did not invent electric and hybrid automobiles, he revolutionized them. All the way back in 1969, he built a fully electric car. In 1972, he created a hybrid vehicle, converting a Buick Skylark to run on an electric motor. It was done under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency, who ran the "Clean Car Incentive Program".

Wouk's prototype was fantastic, but the man in the charge of the EPA's program, Erik Stork, would have none of it. "Hybrids are just not a very practical technology for automotive. That's why it's going nowhere," he said. And nowhere they went.

Thanks, Stork! Gas prices skyrocketed, American dependency on oil kept increasing, carbon emissions kept going up... It took a good three decades for hybrid cars to re-enter the consciousness and then the mainstream. Three decades of lost time.

Should have listened to Victor Wouk.