How to reduce oil demand incrementally year after year in order to stabilize the global economy? What is needed is an OPEC for consumer nations. The oil importing countries getting together to "drill, baby, drill" efficiency and renewable energy for oil demand reduction. OPEC puts a billion into a new oil field, we put 10 billion into mass production of solar, wind, plugin hybrids, ground source heating systems, and smart grid technology.   more »

This sounds serious: "Big American utilities are slashing their investments in alternative energy. Florida Power & Light has cut its planned investment in wind power next year by 400 megawatts. Duke Energy of North Carolina has lopped $50m off its budget for solar power. And on October 31st VeraSun Energy, one of America’s biggest ethanol producers, caught out by gyrations in the prices of corn and petrol (gasoline), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In the European Union the price of carbon permits has fallen from a high of almost €30 in July to around €20, making clean-tech investments less attractive." But as the failure of VeraSun shows, the drop in oil prices is killing agribizz ethanol. Which is a good thing. Will this also delay the roll out of plugin hybrids? Will it give the auto makers an excuse to put off mass production of oil substituting electric vehicles?   more »