Alternative energy supply development is not likely to occur until demand is great enough that the oil producers cannot increase production sufficiently to make the alternative supplies uneconomical. The Arabs did that during the 70's. They drove the price of oil down and put all of the alternative producers out of business before they got started. I think our government should put a floor on the price of oil at a high enough level for alternative supplies to be economically feasible. They could do this as a tax on imported oil. We could fairly quickly, in five years or so, produce enough fuel to virtually eliminate the need to import oil from unfriendly countries. We could even consider having a lower tax on imports from Canada and Mexico. I've suggested this in letters to some Senators, but the ones who've replied didn't like the idea. I suspect that the major oil companies wouldn't like this idea, nor would the oil tanker business. Nor would anyone else with a huge investment in the current system. From a strategic viewpoint it would make sense for the US to develop alternative sources to eliminate the need to import oil from unfriendly nations, including the Arab states. Normally I'm not in favor of the government being involved in business activities unles, as in this case, national security is involved.