The crunch is on. That's the elephant in the room. The new standard in oil is NOT whether we can alleviate our insatiable need for it totally. The truth to the matter is we CAN'T. It's neither going to be about getting and/or finding new bountiful proven reserves. That's NOT happening. We've have stopped doing that a decade ago give or take a few years. We may get a few surprises here and there but don't count on it to sustain our ever increasing demand. It WON'T. Call it what you may, "a scramble for...," "eyes on Africa...," "politics," "dreams,"... call it WAR. The facts remain, what world economies are doing now is fighting for the last vestiges of Free-Oil(TM). The artic region is a prime example, Africa(ie. Angola, Equatorial Guinea)...

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/arctic_oil200805

We've started to "war" for Free-oil w/ information just as we did in Pakistan w/ politics of regime change. Just a different branch of the same tree.

... so what's left? The solution is how well, more especially HOW FAST we can develop and bring CHEAPER alternatives to market... the road less traveled(Rockefeller). MOST especially
for our roads. That's the workable perception of confidence that global markets are looking for could bring prices down for good. They may settle for a solution in Iraq but we're attracting/ magnates for speculation w/ the latter not a solution. It's not a game changer but in actuality the one we have to actively and consciously seek. The trouble is we don't have much time to do it. In fact hardly at all. This is not the oil shock of old when we have decades of time in front of us. This is the ultimate of all catch-up games we're used to. We're hardly making a dent in alternatives not matter how you look and slice it w/ our current efforts. You could say it we're NOT making a dent at all. The time has long past to rely on rhetoric and winning arguments on semantics. Short of a revolutionary breakthrough in the way we use and see roads, it's time for action even if it's a mobile society.

This nation is NO longer in control of its' destiny when it comes to OIL even considering its' extreme wealth and military(the projection...),. Short of that, it's the end-game.

P. Mavin