Quote Originally Posted by mont974x4
I don't think there is an oil shortage to the point where we or our children need to worry about it. However, I do think we need to look at this as a national security issue. Allow drilling and refining of our own oil to carry us a for a few years while developing practical clean alternatives.
I went to a lecture on this recently given by Dr. David Goodstein on this subject,

If the estimated amount of oil in the ground is correct (estimated by current drilling areas and frequency of new areas being discovered) then we will start seeing a decline in the amount of available oil within the next 5 years. But it is an esimate, so until it happens...

The problem is nothing can replace oil. Biofuel is to inefficent, wind is unpredictable, we've used up almost all the hydro electric possible, solar is limited and expensive. Were down to basicly Hydrogen cells and fusion and they still need many to decades of time to be developed.

So if we do run out of oil very soon our economy will collapse. Not to mention that as we continue to drill and use oil we make a significant impact on our global enviorment. We'll be looking at a major climate change sooner then what would occur naturaly.