The savings that could be accrued by higher efficiency standards, Bradley said, represents roughly the amount of oil the U.S. purchases from OPEC producers on a daily basis.

Bradley said that as other countries like China, India and Russia increase their consumption of oil, any expectation of prices going down are unrealistic, and financing improvements in efficiency outweighs the cost benefits of investing in things like biofuel production now.

The solution, Bradley said, is cultivating an environment of connectedness as individuals and global citizens.

"The long-term future of America and the world will be determined by the extent to which we can see those connections," Bradley said. "In the political sector, it means you fulfill your job as citizen, not only to vote, but to stay there involved and understand what's at stake and push elected officials to deal with these issues in ways that they would not have if you had not taken your job as citizen seriously."

Conference attendee Michael Knight is on the fleet management staff for the government of the province of Manitoba, Canada. He said that Bradley's presentation really resonated with him.

"His talk covered some really good topics," Knight said. "Even though I'm Canadian, a lot of the things he talked about pertained to us."

Knight said the effort to address vehicle efficiency issues is very much a part of his agency's current and future plans.

"The light-duty fleets are buying hybrids and ethanol-powered vehicles ... I think we just purchased about a half-dozen hybrid Camrys," Knight said. "It's something we're doing more and more of."

Knight said Canadian fuel prices have been escalating at about the same rate in his country as in the U.S., though they are still paying a bit more.

"When we left, gas was about $1.25 a liter," Knight said. "We figured the price in Salt Lake City at about 90-91 cents a liter."

Phillip Russo, executive director of the National Association of Fleet Administrators, said that fuel prices and efficiency are definitely the hot topics for this installment of his group's annual gathering.

"Even though the planning for this started last June, we had an idea that fuel costs would be very high on everyone's list of issues," Russo said. "It's definitely the most talked-about topic this weekend ... it's huge."

Russo said that the fleet industry has seen a $7 billion increase in fuel costs in the last year, and the number of exhibitors with efficiency-related products more than doubled over last year. A special "Green Zone" is featured in the exhibition hall, which included displays of new hybrid vehicles.

Russo said that the theme is more present even among the exhibitors who do not specialize in efficiency products, a result of demand by fleet professionals.

"Corporations are doing more in this area because it's the right thing to do," Russo said. "And because it has become a cost necessity."

The NAFA conference runs through Tuesday. The group is based in Princeton, N.J.

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E-mail: araymond@desnews.com