The biggest misunderstanding of Peak Oil
All this talk about drilling offshore, drilling in Alaska, etc.
As if this could return gas prices to $1.50 a gallon. People really think these measures could save us.
No only would these measures not save us, they would not even help.
This is the major misunderstanding of peak oil - that there are 1 trillion barrels of oil in the ground, we just have not been agressive enough in getting it out.
The truth is - we pumped the easy trillion and now we are going to replace it with the hard trillion. Barrels that practically bubble to the surface are replaced with barrels miles below the ocean surface.
Peak oil is NOT the end of oil, it is the end of CHEAP oil.
There is no answer to oil and gas prices. They will fluctuate in the short term (sometimes wildly), but over time they will go up.
We have to let go of the past (oil) and look to the future (alternatives).
Unfortunatly, as a country, we are too stupid to do this. There will be a day when we will spend 99 barrels of oil to harvest 100. We just can't get our heads out of the ground.