Sure, they are making profits hand over fist.  And sure, it's outrageous that we are giving huge tax benefits to these companies while at the same time trying to figure out how to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels (dude, what's that all about?!).

But Americans need to come to grips with the reality that $35-a-barrel oil is gone, forever.  Possibly $55, $65-a-barrel as well.  And it's only a matter of time before that finite resource reaches $200, $300 a barrel.  Peak oil is on the horizon, and we need to face that harsh fact.

If we simply flail away at those mean oil companies, that doesn't get us very far towards solutions.  As long as people drive SUVs and expect it's their god-given right to fill up for less than $40, we're doomed to drill every available square foot of public land and squeeze oil out of every ounce of Canadian tar sands until we can no longer drill or squeeze any more oil at $300 a barrel.

Let's cut the subsidies for oil companies, get serious about R&D of alternative energy sources, get serious about conservation, and quit trying to pretend it's all the fault of Exxon.

While gas prices should be high -- which they are NOT in the U.S., despite the crying by spoiled Americans -- the money from gasoline sales should be going toward building and maintaining public transit in order to get people out of private motor vehicles.  This money would come from a tax on gasoline, as they do in western Europe in order to provide for their excellent train systems.  Most of the world pays about $6/gallon for gasoline, but even that's too cheap, and it should be increased to $10/gallon at first and eventually $15/gallon, with an inflation increase yearly.  That would get people to change their habits and lifestyle choices!

I want oil subsidies invested in physically separated bike lanes and paths that go everywhere major roads go (I've had a few "scary" near misses with oblivious or maybe just "mean" drivers).  I also want improved public transportation that is convenient and easy to use.  

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Ghandi

I suspect that, well before this situation develops, those with real power will be sequestering oil for use by those they deem to be higher priority than you and me. Militaries and black marketeers with back-door access to the corridors of power come readily to mind, and no doubt there would be a few 'special friends' in there too.

It's possible that such sequestration has been going on for some time - perhaps even as long as Saudi Arabia has been promising to increase production but hasn't - and if that's true, then a day of serious reckoning may not be far off. Let's hope this scenario will be consigned to the conspiracy theory bin...

Bottom line: Price isn't the most reliable indicator of peak oil. Watch instead the oil producers' behaviors, particularly investment in infrastructure, and get ahead on your Prosperity Plan for a Post-Carbon Future.

Inslee asked Simon to consider a study done at Stanford called "A Renewable Energy Solution to Global Warming" by Mark Jacobson. The study concluded that the US could replace all of its vehicles with battery electric vehicles powered by 71,000 to 122,000 five megawatt wind turbines. Building those turbines would be the industrial equivalent of building all the aircraft used in World War II. It could be done.

"Wouldn't you agree," he asked Simon, "that this vision from Stanford is one the US really needs? With your pathetically small research budget, we are not going to get there."

Inslee said that Simon's testimony had made him even more determined to act. Addressing Simon again, he said: "I don't see things changing, and obviously we've got to change you by changing this tax policy."

While Big Oil fights any reduction in its subsidized tax breaks, the struggling renewable energy industry is facing a catastrophe as its small but vital production and investment tax credits expire at the end of 2008. Already the lack of certainty is constraining investment.

Renewable energy lobbyist Scott Sklar of the Stella Group said that the industry is seeing job losses and market moves into Europe and out of the US. He expects that even if Congress manages to pass a temporary one-year extension of the subsidies, the industry will still lose 20,000 jobs and utility-scale renewable projects will stop.

On March 5, 2008, Vestas opened its first North American manufacturing facility, producing turbine blades in Windsor, Colorado. The factory will employ 650 people. This kind of news could be repeated in towns all over the country, but not as long as Bush Republicans and Big Oil stand in the way.