Alternatives will take a long period of time to develop so the price of oil needs to stay in the $50-60 range for an extended period of time. If the price suddenly falls, any projects to develop alternatives will be put on the back burner once again. If the price keeps going higher at this point, then I think the economists responsible for forcasting things such as the price of oil will view this as a "bubble" market. And the problem with bubble markets is that they always burst, with prices returning to much lower prices. So in conclusion, I don't think you will see a lot of alternatives developed by the private sector until the market price stabilizes.
And while I don't like paying $2.00/gallon for gas, I hope the price does stablize in the $50.00-55.00 range. That is plenty high (from a historical perspective) to feed the growth of alternative fuels.
Scott Evil
Current Events » in reply to Still to low. Needs to be $100 per barrel to stimulate alternative energy resources and get the SUVs off the roads.
re: The biggest factor is price stability.