http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5845817.htmlKey line:
"Within 10 years, you are going to see the transition to alternative fuel sources," she said. "Eventually internal combustion engines will die off, but it'll take 20 to 30 years." Uh, we got out of our last energy crisis TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO. Wake up!
And alternative energy and other related programs were scrapped by a certain incompetent prominent government braindead nitwit, using the term "obsolescence" as the excuse for doing so.
Presidents beyond that nitwit didn't fare much better and, amongst other things, the sex fiend of the 1990s ditching the federal 55MPH speed limit, enacted in 1973 by Nixon, as gas engines use mich higher quantities of gasoline to get to 65MPH. (so as you're paying more at the pump, don't bother whining if you're doing 65MPH. Everybody wanted 65 and we got it.)
Never mind, in 2001, the latest bought-out fool tells us "We need an energy policy that encourages consumption", and henceforth came the big tax breaks on SUVs and Hummers. I suspect you lot aren't so happy now; paying more than DOUBLE what you were for that sweet flammable fluid.
We HAD 25 years. We did diddley except bend over backwards to the oil industry. The same industry recording RECORD PROFITS while making excuse after excuse as to why there's a supply problem. If there is a supply problem, how come their profits keep going up by leaps and bounds? If they're jackin' prices to keep their standard of living at the same level, they've more than matched the non-existent decline. Oh, the same fool telling us we need a policy that encourages consumption now tells us "Don't buy gas if you don't need to." Why not also tell us "Don't buy food if you don't need to."
Good grief. Wake me when we get a halfway decent government to keep an eye on energy. It's far more than a mere commodity like that Britney Spears CD everybody had to have last month... our wretched LIVES depend on the stuff.