The US rank 3rd as oil producer. Americans pump about twice as much oil as Iran, or as much as the emirates+kuwait+irak+algeria, or as much as Canadá+Mexico+Venezuela+Brazil. The US produces a lot of oil.
Still, americans import about as much oil than Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, togher

Rui, Lisbon, Portugal

The FedReserve Policy since about 2004 of not supporting the dollar is a major contributor to the sharp rise in oil in terms of dollars. Second is the refusal of the U.S. Congress to permit exploring/drilling for oil and natural gas in most of the U.S.

Alan Sterling, Bethesda, USA

'The electric vehicle remains more a hope than a reality.'
nonsense. within the next two years four electric cars will be put on sale by japanese automakers all of which can 'supercharge' in 20 mins, have a range in excess of 150 kms and travel up to 90mph.

john winter, tokyo, japan

Well ... it's the American Way. Let the markets decide, and be reticent with government intervention that has a long-term policy objective.

Twenty to thirty years ago would have been a good time to become energy-efficient, but we chose to enjoy cheap energy. Now we have to do the same in less time

Golodh, London, UK

Funny how in pounds sterling terms oil is not that much more expensive than it was when the dollar was stronger and the oil price lower. Of course the British consumer should therefore be paying relatively less. We are being conned!

Christopher Wright, Newcastle,

The American suburbs have ceased to be just residential areas for commuters who commute to work in the cities (and for whom commuter rail makes sense). Many folks now live, work, and shop entirely in the suburbs. With that kind of sprawl and low density, mass transit cannot work.

Steve L., Lowell, MA, U.S.A.

Kevin, the pop. rise in 20C was no more artificial than in preceding centuries. Do you really believe that nasty capitalists engineered this to drive their factories and mines? Risible! If so, I suppose you would believe that its corollary, starvation, will be due to market forces. You socialists!

Steve, Birmingham,

GM's closed truck factories can build heavy hybrid SUV/toter trucks, with Plug In & Out, leasing current fork lift batteries, until the technology catches up. The bio capable diesel generator is also a multi mode portable generator, welder, for farm, work, and vacation homes/power outages.

Franklin Lomax, ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, USA

About time Americans and developed world stopped blaming China and Rickshaw Pullers of the third world for aspiring to be able to enjoy some basic facilities in life. Blame your sheer greed, "American Dream" Speculators and War Mongerers "Neocons" for price hike. Bofuels means no bread for millions

M Ezad, Southampton, UK

John in London:

"I 've heard there is a fair amount of water in the Pacific Ocean."

Maybe you know something I don't, but over here seawater isn't much good for irrigating crops.

Peter USA

peter, miami, usa

I've decided to cycle more & install a wood-burning stove in my sitting room, since wood is a renewable and stove technology is now so efficient that devices are carbon neutral. Local sources of wood would see me through the winter period for less than £50 a month. Stuff the Saudis! Bring it on!

devorgilla, Edinburgh, Scotland

Peter USA
I 've heard there is a fair amount of water in the Pacific Ocean.

John, LONDON, ENGLAND

A Sandia Labs study independently confirmed by - Jan Kreider and Peter Curtis - estimates that it takes 5 gal of water to produce a gallon of oil, 170 gallons of water per gallon of corn ethanol and 900 gallons of water for a gallon of bio-diesel. Where will the water come from?

peter, miami, usa

The compressed air car is here now and uses no petrol, diesel or other oil products. It is good for 160 miles a day at 68mph. NO info is coming through on it from the mass media other than the internet. Look up the compressed air car on Google. The future is NOW!

victor compton, Cherbourg, France

This piece is 'spot on'. There is no quick fix. No secret vast oil or coal reserves which will save the day. Slowly but surely the cheap fuel which has driven world growth for the last 125 years is being choked off. We all need to adjust our lifestyles the best we can.

Andrew, Paris,

I would like the oil to reach 10.000$/barrel. It would mean that cities would be free of pollution. A world full of electric bikes and cars... Nice dream.
On the other hand when the 15th/08 will function the large hadron collider, it will create a micro black hole and we all will die. So, why bother

Toni, Barcelona, Spain

I have a simple solution - I don't think we have enough holidays in the west. Double that might work quite well.

Or I suppose we can alls stop buying DVDs etc from China so that they don't have use so much energy making/shifting/transporting them...

stevie, berkshre,

Cellulosic ethanol is the only answer but the u s gov does not seem to want to invest. until oil reaches $200 they will start throughing money at it. so the way oil price is going it will be sometime this year. i have seen my first 4 / 4 graveyard just the other day and this is the next big thing.

michael mckeary, paisley, scotland

'will' is right; the market will invent the future. In ten years time, everyone will look back, and see the new equivalent of the internet; and without even fighting a world war over oil.

Howard, Sussex, UK

"No quick fixes" - anyone who is remotely aware of Peak Oil reality could have told you that decades ago.

Instead of concentrating the population of the USA, the opposite has happened. This is the biggest blunder of all as now passenger rail and public transport are of limited use.

Alfred, Ryde, UK

it's indeed that the industrial age is a function of the burning of fossil fuels and that one day all this will be reversed. when this happens it cannot be said, but the pains of the reversal are felt from time to time during economic rundowns.

dennis cini, zebbug, gozo, malta

The West has had since 1973 to prepare for the serious decline of oil, but nothing of any note has been achieved. Hopefully the high oil price will now galvanise the alternatives and enable the extraction of high cost, politically stable deposits and the use of clean coal.

Tony Gee, London,

The real villains are the NY and City commodity traders pushing prices up for speculative gain. Curb their manipulation and problem of this bubble spike in oil will be solved

Mac, Manchester, UK

Australia has vast reserves of natural gas, easily compressed for a car fuel, "CNG" ie., Compressed Natural Gas. CNG has only 25% of the pollution of petrol and converted at the home costs "10cents" a litre. Some Japanese cars have the compressor built in. Its all discouraged or forbidden by our Gov

Dennis, Sydney, Australia

This analysis is typical of 'establishment' economists - dismissing over 10yrs of calls for serious debate about 'Peak Oil'. True, the chance of a timely shift to alt. energy is wasted, but in his own field of Economics much can be done. Cap & Share recycles the rip-off oil price back to citizens.

Mike Hall, Cork, Ireland

The population boom of the twentieth century was artifically manufactured on oil and the oil derived green revolution. The markets will fix this by demand destruction of the population via mass STARVATION EVERYWHERE. Isn't it wonderful how the markets operate Irwin? But can we avoid extinction?

kevin, Lincoln, UK

Our economy built too many housing units at the lowest possible cost, with the lowest educated worker, resulting in the lowest possible quality. This isn't the fault of the illegal immigrant, but it is the fault of government and employers.We're very creative in making a 3rd world economy.

Jim Davis, Philadelphia, USA

Mr Stelzer,
Are you not aware that the United States needs a first class passenger rail system that would be attractive and affordable for inter city journeys of up to 500 miles. Why do you still not get it?

Brian Eastwood, Petersburg VA, USA

the more expensive oil gets, the more appealing it will become for companies to research alternatives, who knows what will power the world in the future, its like trying to write a 10 year plan the year before they invented the internet. Just let the market get on with inventing the future.

will, grimsby, uk

Public or Private transport will be the only alternative . The love affair with personal transport is over , when will we grasp this fact.
John

John Rutter, Ubon, Thailand

You need to divest yourself of this idea that coal is abundant, without qualification. This is old perceived wisdom. Globally, coal production may still be rising but that may not carry on much longer. Coal reserves figures aren't as rigorous as oil reserves. Production may peak with a decade or two

Tony Wedale, Auckland, New Zealand