We have reached the worldwide peak of oil production.  So, availability of oil will steadily decrease and prices will steadily increase.  Basic Supply and Demand.

So, now is the time to act.  The transition to clean renewable fuels and energy doesn't have to happen "over night".  However, the renewable energy resources available to us, can power the world indefinitely - forever!

If our political leaders look at the "big picture", they can legislate our energy future such that the transition from oil to clean, renewables, over the next several decades, is a benefit to everyone, including oil interests, some-of whom are already openly posturing for the solar future.

However, if the politicians that represent us don't take progressive measures, but rather stay in what has seemed for years an energy policy paralysis, then we will be very vulnerable economically and from a security standpoint.  If we stay with the status quo:  Economic impact from increasing energy costs will significantly increase the price of everything and every service that we buy - compounded.  From a security standpoint:  Our dependence on foreign oil, from Middle-Eastern countries with large factions that don't like us, makes us very vulnerable if the oil fields are closed down by either attack or choice.

So, it's time for our legislators to wake-up to reality and devise a smart plan for our energy future.

Bledsoe is right.  Congress needs to pass a greenhouse gas emission reduction bill now to get things started.  Then it needs to add more teeth to it and a larger incentives package - to encourage Americans to drive less, fly less and use less energy in the home; to require the manufacturing of more fuel-efficient automobiles; and to require state level climate change adaptation plans.

The longer Congress takes to decide on a greenhouse gas reduction bill, the more Draconian the law will have to be to do any good.  In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.
Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity.... Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late.""

"Beyond Vietnam" speech, April 4, 1967, Riverside Church, New York, NY

Mark, your comment regarding renewables making America less dependant upon foreign sources of oil would have more reality if electric utilities burned oil.  Fact is, in 2004 only 2.5% of the electricity flowing through the grid was generated from a turbine powered by steam from an oil-fired boiler.  It is the transportation sector that demands the nearly 20 million barrels of oil per day.

If you believe hydrogen can back out oil in the transportation sector, that raises false hopes because natural gas, used as a feedstock, is not in adequate supply and has higher utilization values such as feedstock for fertilizer and manufactured goods, home heating.  And, water electrolysis uutilizing kilowatts derived from renewable sources - wind and solar - will never be a commercial-scale option.

John McC