I'm not sure I'd go along with drilling a hole in an ocean mountain--if anyone bothered to ask for my opinion--even if it were feasible and not cost prohibitive. Again, I think of unintended consequences and I think we've polluted our oceans quite enough, thank you--fine.

And, in theory anyway, fusion takes a huge shot of energy to get the process rolling. If it then becomes self-sustaining, fine--but that's, so far, also an unproven theory.

It's also equally improbable, imho, to convince people that an internal combustion automobile (of any type) is a means of transport and not a status symbol. (A standardly equipped Volvo is over $49,000, for goodness sake--a Cadillac El Durado is over $55,000. If you've got it, you want to show it!)

But all is not yet lost! (Sound effect: Bugles sounding 'Charge' as horses gallop over the hill, around the bend, whatever.) The Big Five oil companies are going back to Iraq to seal the deal on a no-bid contract to 'service and maintain' Iraq's oil fields before a profit-sharing law is passed in Iraq--and before any other country does. The oil companies will be paid in oil. (BTW, the oil companies complain that their own equipment is becoming shopworn.)

Is anyone surprised?

We can produce biofuels to take the place of gasoline and/or to power manufacturing plants. We can all buy the cheapest grade of gasoline, regular, and we can demand that car manufacturers stop tarting up interiors and start improving effeciency. (An aside: Has everyone noticed that car ads now only quote the highest MPG their product can achieve and not the spread?)

Sorry--it's hard to write about the cost of crude oil without using gasoline as an indicator, but we have a thread for gas prices. And, sorry again, this seems to have turned into a rant.

Despite what Jimmy Carter said way back when, nothing has really been done to wean us from foreign oil. What can we really do about the cost of crude oil, taking into account the cost to drill it, transport it and refine it?

Do we take the easy way out and select a country, Iraq--the third largest oil producing country in the world, a country the US thought it could manipulate because Saddam was 'our friend' (until he nationalized Iraqi oil,) a country weakened by a dictatorship that the US knew it could over-throw, and a country that provides an extremely advantageous military outpost in an otherwise non-understood section of the world? Tell that to the families and friends of the fallen.

And I'd still like to know--because I'm a persistent b-tch and have a one-track mind, when the subject interests me, what are we going to do without the by-products of petroleum distillation? How will our roads be built without asphalt? How will we be able to live without plastics, solvents (cleaning fluid?) or medicines derived from petrochemicals? If anyone can give me those answers, I'll stop ranting.

Do you mean when the last few drops are used? Is the demand for the by-products such that we'd be asking these questions even if we were just thowing the gasoline products away? I'm just asking, I don't know.

An excellent lecture presentation by Lindsey Williams Octber last year ...2007... by an oil insider explains the oil agenda re prices and the current crisis being perception driven rather than demand driven.... Also what we in the developed world have to look forward to in the very near future.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/344.html "is the oil crisis real?

I'm just nitpicking here but so what! First of all, you're way off the mark with the $50k volvo. I'm not even sure Volvo makes a $50k car but if they do its a way high end model. As for the Caddy, who cares?? Nobody is forcing you to buy a Caddy, or Mercedes, or BMW. Go buy a Kia if that's all you can afford. Again, what's your point? Should car companies not be building fun cars? Should Ferrari just close shop? If that's the case, should people also stop creating insanely priced pieces of art? Because that's what I consider exotic cars to be. Art. Functional art at that. The $50k BMW or Aston Marten or whatever is just an extension of that. Are you going to start telling people they should stop buying expensive artwork because their money could go to far more practical purposes?