Why not electric cars?

I overheard some people talking yesterday. They were talking about the price of gasoline, and saying things like "We need to drill in Alaska!".

Let's say we don't care about the environment (obviously many do not!). How much oil would we gain? Enough for another twenty years? Fify? A hundred? Whatever it is, it should be obvious that oil is a finite resource and we need to be working at conserving it because there are things that we absolutely need oil for.

The big objection I hear to electric cars is range, and that just maddens me. THAT'S A SIMPLE PROBLEM TO SOLVE. Design all electric cars with a standardized, removable battery pack. Where we have gas stations now, you'd drive into a bay, they'd yank your old pack out, drop in a newly charged pack, and you'd be on your way. NO RANGE PROBLEM.

Yes, it would take cooperation, time, and expense. Far less expense than dragging oil out of Alaska or the deep sea.. far less than a war in Iraq..

Arrgh..