Just FYI, we could build 1 whole nuclear power plant a month, and spend another 1.7 billion a month on hydrogen conversion plants to be powered by same for what our Iraqi adventure is costing us. This is money that would go directly into the economy, employing countless people--laborers, scientists, technicians, finance and management, education... All kinds of folks. And it would also be an investment in our future. Rather than resorting to flagrant waste and dishonesty in a futile attempt to squeeze the last remaining drops from a finite pool. Do we charge the cost of an aircraft carrier group on permanent deployment in the Gulf to our gas bill? A global, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, hydrogen-based economy, freeing us from the enslavement of oil, would do more to bring world peace than anything else I can possibly imagine. Not only could we solve our energy problems, but we could go a long way towards solving our water problems as well. But unfortunately we at present are ruled by oil cartels, whose interest demands we continue our doomed love affair with sweet crude. Alternative fuels are inevitable, if we hope to survive as a civilisation. Alternate fuel sources must come online. The only question is how much tragedy we'll be forced to endure before we come to that place.