The National Technology Readiness Survey released today by the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business found that American consumers want to spend their money on green products. In it's survey, they found that 71 percent of adults are interested in green technology, but there is a large gap between the number of products consumers own now and the number they say they would like to own.

That's pretty awesome, if you stop and think about it. But what's even more awesome is that a little over half of that $104 billion comes from interest in consumers wanting to buy alternative fueled vehicles. The auto industry could stand to earn $54 billion dollars from people who want to buy hybrids, bio-fuel, electric, or flex-fuel cars.

It shouldn't amaze me, but I still find it hard to believe that consumers are so far ahead of the curve compared to Detroit when it comes to planet-friendlier cars. Toyota saw what was happening early on and came out with the Prius, but the folks in Detroit have continually tried to fight against even higher gas mileage standards, ignoring what market research has been showing them.

The good news is that it seems they're starting to listen, albeit they're mainly supporting ethanol vehicles. That would be fine if we were producing more ethanol from cellulosic feed stock rather than food sources.

We'll have to wait and see what happens in Detroit when it comes to green cars. There's the appearance that America's big three are moving in the right direction, but appearances can be deceiving.

Still, there are a lot of other green products out there that people can buy, and a lot of interest for buying them. Here's a few more interesting numbers from the report:

• 83 percent of adults want to preserve and protect the environment
• 42 percent of adults said products and services that help the environment are hard to find
• 59 percent of adults say they like trying new technologies that help the environment
• 56 percent of adults say gadgets designed to help the environment would be fun to own
• 68 percent of adults like to do business with companies that are environmentally responsible
• 72 percent of adults say they resent companies who say they care about the environment but are not sincere

You can find more information about the National Technology Readiness Survey at Rockbridge Research.