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Now that gas prices nationwide have dipped to an average of $1.65 a gallon, are U.S. drivers finally being lured back to the road?

As it turns out, no.

That's according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). In the 12-month period between November 2007 and October 2008, Americans drove over 100 billion fewer miles compared with the prior year. That's the most dramatic continuous driving decline since record-keeping began in 1942.

Most surprising, the downturn continued even as gas prices plummeted.

The case for GM Bob Lutz's resignation as part of the $15 billion US auto industry rescue is getting stronger by the day -- thanks to verbal klutz Lutz himself.

Click on play above to watch the GM Vice Chairman talking to Fox News about how Americans actually want big SUVs and trucks, and how producing small cars is bad for business. The transcript, via Think Progress:

LUTZ: Let me just get one thing straight here: You know, there’s a lot of talk about, well, General Motors doesn’t make the right kind of cars or General Motors built trucks too long. At $1.50 a gallon, the American public wants sport utilities and large pickup trucks.

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As a matter of immediate concern, I think the U.S. legislators contemplating this bailout package should demand Bob Lutz's resignation before dribbling a single dollar into GM's leaky pockets.

Jim Hoggan, DeSmogBlog, 12-6-08

If everybody in America doesn't know who Bob Lutz is, they should. He's GM's denier-in-chief. Nicknamed "Maximum Bob" for being the champion of cars like the Dodge V-10 Viper and the 1,000 horsepower Cadillac Sixteen, he also gained notoriety for calling global warming a "crock of (expletive deleted)." Now, he's out front for GM as the booster for the Chevy Volt, the electric car on which the company is staking its turnaround. Good grief.

Who hasn't been enraged to read about how Ford and G.M. can make perfectly good little gas sippers for Europe, but just can't bring themselves to make a fuel efficient car for us back home?

Well, now that they need some funding from us, here's an idea. Let's fund Detroit just to set up their efficient European car factories — back here, where they are really needed. Let's get some better gas mileage out of their money troubles.

Apparently, it only costs $75 million to completely retool a plant, to produce an efficient little car instead of the gas-guzzling behemoth they were fobbing off on us fools all these years.

Last week -- on anything to do with climate and energy -- it was all California, all the time. The state emerged in full view as the nation's leading source of leadership and light on global warming solutions. The best part is that California's ascendancy is both bipartisan and global.