Yes, well people did really believe we would have flying cars and biodomes on the moon by now. So I don't invest too much faith in future wishes and hopes.

Short of unfeasible and economically devastating projects such as solar panels covering the earth and turning water into wine, er hydrogen, we don't have much reason for hope. I think we're all adults here and we all get how important it is to find alternatives to oil. But smarter people have thought about this well before Al Gore was born. You can't invent sources of energy. You can only discover what is already there.

"Europe and China are going to kick our ass at this unless we step it up"

That's an odd bit of protectionism to throw into the mix there. I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter one way or another who gets there first. What matters is that someone does. But I don't think tossing federal funding at a dartboard is the way to go about it.

Are you serious? Accurate web search, didn't matter who got there first? Intuitive MP3 player with bundled music store, didn't matter who got there first?

It's amazing how many people who would otherwise chant "america, fuck yeah" become total pessimists when it comes to energy. Al Gore's totally beside the point.

The ultimate solution may indeed be "getting past oil" but that's a long, long way off. Absent some game-changing discoveries, it may not happen in our lifetimes.