With oil sky high all kinds of alternatives become viable even at low volume. The best of these will become high volume and the price of energy will come down in 10 to 30 years. Even the oil companies have gotten scared enough to get serious about researching alternatives and no longer have to deny global warming.

Unfortunately if the government had actually paid for more research we might have a solution now and not have to go through this wrenching pain. Markets are greedy. They want profits now. Why drill for oil or invest in alternatives when a limited supply drives up prices and profits and you can save all that money by not doing research or drilling. I've spit on the war for cheap oil mantra for years precisely because this type of environment proves expensive oil means big profits for oil companies. CEO's who gimmick up profits get big paydays and parachutes after they engineer buyouts based on those suped up earnings before anyone figures out they were shell games or unsustainable. It's up to the voters to demand a government to look to the future and shareholders to decide whether short term or long term profits are more important.

Regards,
Mark