Chrome And Steel Go Green

At this year's auto show they were all singing from the same song book. And its cover is green, reports CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers.

"It's diesel, it's hybrid-diesel, its hybrid gas, its hydrogen, it's hydrogen-diesel, it's hybrid-hydrogen," said Jean Jennings.

Part electric, part gas hybrids now come in all shapes and sizes. From the Saturn Vue to the Jeep Renegade to the Cadillac Escalade. You no longer have to sacrifice size to save the environment.

And at 200-plus mph, Indy drivers have proven you don't have to sacrifice power to run on ethanol.

But those drivers don't refuel at ordinary gas stations. Nearly six million U.S. cars can run on bio-fuel - but there are fewer than 1,400 places to buy it.

"Nearly everyone can agree that we need to find a better way to make ethanol," said Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors.

And before it fully comes to pass, corn-based ethanol could be passé. GM has partnered with Coskata -- a company that says it can make gas out of garbage … just like in the movie "Back to the Future."

But Coskata says within three years we should be able to use landfills to fill up. Best of all, this futuristic fuel will have an old fashioned price tag of about $1 a gallon.

The U.S. auto market is down 7 percent. Toyota is poised to becomes the world's number one car-maker.

So the American auto manufacturers desperately hope that going green will get them out of the red.