[MycoChondria]

Just got thru all the posts in this thread...way cool and extremely thoughtful.

Let me offer a slightly different perspective...
..."high" gas prices have yet to be discussed along with (or in the context of) falling consumer spending power. For example, if gas prices rise x% year-over-year, would it matter so much if real wages rose by x%? My real wages have been declining for the last five years, and I consider myself very, very fortunate. When I had to change jobs 5 years ago to one that paid 50% less than what I was making, THAT'S when I started paying attention to things like the price of gasoline, medical insurance premiums, rent, and food. Data from the Beareau of Labor Statistics is released just as publicly as data about gas prices, so why do we really never hear about this? Check out "Zeitgeist, The Movie", and just about anything by Noam Chomsky to bet a big picture.

Gas prices and oil prices are NOT set by the oil companies, but by the financial markets where these commodoties are bought and sold. The prices reflect supply/demand, world politics, market sentiment, the weather, to name but a few factors. The energy markets are partcilarly volatile right now, and some even think a bubble is forming or has already formed and ready to burst. Oil companies make money in any case.

Until we have Mr. Fusion units in our homes and cars, the long-term solution will be the development of industrial processes that allow for the use of solar energy as a source fuel. Technological advances will eventually allow the energy from the sun to be converted to usable fuels, provided the supporting infrastructures are financially and (perhaps more importantly) politically sustained.

If genetic engineering could produce photosynthetic bacteria that convert sunlight directly into gasoline or another distillate of petroleum, that would solve a lot of problems, wouldn't it? Home fusion reactors may be a long time away, but I'll bet technology kicks the ass out of solar energy usability issues in the nearer term. I've seen stranger things happen.