Have you not seen "Battlestar Galatcia"
It will only be a matter of time before we discover 'tiliam' and start mining that to fuel out ships engines...
Then all we need to worry about it Cylon attacks...
/end scarscasm (cant spell, shoot me)
Think about this tho;
If oil were still cheap enough and fuel only cost 50cents a litre would you have any reason to research alternative fuels?
I mean to say if we were not having the fuel price pressure we would not care about what alternatives are around. We need to spend money today right now in devolping new ways and new minerals to replace oil, or at least a way to produce it in a lab. We need higher oil prices as it encourages us to look at the problem and help devise a solution rather than just worrying about i all the time.
Higher oil prices = panic for us and profit for the oil producers
Think about this, lets say you own BP
Now your people come to you and say, hey 95% of our profits come from mining oil and turning it into fuel etc, and only 5% of the companys profits come from somewhere else. What is the most important part of the business to you today??? Remember CEO's are paid on results, so to ensure your big pay check you need to lift profits. Now to think out side the box for a second, this item (oil) in which you make the most of your money is running out.
What do you do to ensure that BP is rich enough to survive at the time that the oil runs dry?
You increase the wholesale cost of oil to bank the profits for a rainy day.
Higher fuel is a good thing for the enviroment tho and as I said a good reason to research alternatives, people think twice about going for a sunday drive, people buy more fuel efficient cars, people understand their is a problem now and are working towards a solution for a better life.
The only down side to higher fuel cost is we spend more of our own money to fill the car. In defence the average AUST pay median in 2002 was 24k per annum it is now over 34k per annum. Point being it cost $50 to fill the average family car in 2002, now it costs $75 an increase of around 50% but our average take home pay has increased a good 35% in the past 4 years also and with the tax cuts and higher tax brackets we have been able to increase our net wages by at least 5-7% per annum.
So really the fuel cost to us is still the same.