Amory Lovins wants the world to run right. He wants everyone to use resources more wisely and live in real communities rather than subdivisions. Above all, he wants us to drive plastic cars that he calls "computers on wheels." Car companies are not laughing.
Co-founder of a think tank called the Rocky Mountain Institute, Lovins, 52, makes his home amid the alpine splendor of Snowmass, Colorado, but his influence can be seen in Detroit, Tokyo, Stuttgart--wherever cars are made. In 1991, before the industry got serious about greener cars, Lovins used a speech before the U.S. National Research Council to call...