I believe we have hit peak oil but also I keep hearing about this thing called the Enron Loophole.

Basically it comes down to the price of oil right now should be about $60 to $65 a barrel instead of $120.

Much the same as the subprime mortgage mess this also is caused by deregulation. Relaxing the rules from about 2000 on in oil trading especailly speculating has brought about an artificial market surrounding oil.

That's what happens when you don't manufacture anything anymore and bust your construction and housing industry.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

We are all screamning about how gasoline is so expensive. While we are bellowing about oil companies, we are in our cars driving 80 mph on the freeways, driving indiscriminately, we have poorly timed traffic lights in our towns,and WE ARE SITTING IN FAST FOOD DRIVE THRU's IN OUR OVER-SIZED CARS, ONE PASSENGER, AND WASTING FUEL.  
We cannot say that gasoline is too expensive and continue wasting energy.  

  The people are deemed not ready for the grim truth. The tinfoil hat notions that its just manipulation by greedy oil companies and speculators is easy to exploit. Telling people who already are hurting due to the increase in fuel costs, that the problem is they are paying too little, is too much tough love, -certainly at least for this stage of the popularity contest.

"This approach, whether solar, wind, or nuclear will use up a lot of oil, natural gas, and coal and just give us more electric power, which we don't need and can't use to plant, harvest, and transport food, nor will it heat our homes."

cjwirth,

I fail to understand your logic... How is it that moving to alternatives like solar, wind, and nuclear will consume "a lot" of fossil fuels?  The reality is that in America and elsewhere (e.g. China, India) electricity consumption continues to grow, and the largest portion of greenhouse gas emissions come from electricity production - not from transportation.  These technologies might require a finite amount of fossil fuels in construction phases, but the amount consumed will directly and quickly be offset by the consumption that these technologies replace.  

The answer to our energy problem doesn't lie in increased corporate taxes, since these will only force job cuts or induce costs that are passed on to the consumer.  This talk of commandeering the oil companies' record profits will never fly, especially with the influence that the corporate lobbyists have in Congress (not to mention the questionable legality of such a process). The solution will come from a combination of publicly funded research and private development, both of which are already booming because of high oil prices. The answer lies in the incentive and higher fossil fuel prices mean greater market response.