There is a major problem with this actually happening. We have no national energy direction. As I understand it, the current administration wants the market to decide (or they are just clueless). I am convinced that this won't work. We will be left with oil over $100 a barrel and natural gas coming from abroad so we will be even less energy independent. Some leadership is needed here and I don't see any of our politicians providing it.

Good god, my friend, are you kidding? The current administration is leading us powerfully in energy direction. They are spending 100s of billions of dollars each year to secure our energy supplies for the coming decades. It's oil, baby. Damn the costs, our nation runs on cheap oil.

Of course, they didn't plan on spending 100s of billions of dollars at this point in time defending our access to oil, they thought that Iraq would roll over and we'd be pumping oil to beat the band, and it would practically pay for itself to secure our access. Unfortunately, they grossly miscalculated.

"Iraq is war on terrorism!", you might say, if you buy that we invaded Iraq because Saddam and their worn out pathetic military was a threat to us. So, you don't put that bill on fossil fuel. I will call you naive, then I will point out that the federal government still subsidizes fossil fuels to the tune of 10-15 billion a year, IIRC, dwarfing the government aide to 'alternative' energy sources. That's a lot of direction from the government on where the market should go.


Sure, they know the party will end some day after we crest the peak of oil supply, but they won't be in office then, and they, and their friends and families, will be rich and powerful. They will point at the few billion they (mis)spent on hydrogen and ethanol and say, "Look, I tried to do something!"

If you hire a bunch of oilmen to direct your energy policy, then it's fairly predictable what that energy policy will be.

B.