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Here are some stats from the CEO and Chairman of XOM.

The world uses 80,000,000 barrels of oil a day. The USA uses 16,000,000 barrels of oil a day or 20%. Japan imports all it's oil, China and GB are going to be importing oil very soon.

XOM is the 2nd largest corp in the world after Wally World and has a 10% share of the oil/energy market. It sells 1,000,000,000 gallons of "product" every 3 days. Has 3000 gasoline stations in the USA. Also remember that oil is used in most of the products we use in our daily lives..Plastic etc

It would take 84 square miles of Solar panels to equal the energy/gasoline sold at ONE XOM gas station per day. It would take solar panels covering LA to equal 6 gas stations, and the area the size of NJ to equal 300 stations. The USA has apx 30,000 gasoline stations.

The point being here is that alternative fuel sources can't match the scale of energy needed to supply the world economy.

He further stated that XOM is in the energy business and with their resources would buy into any viable energy producing business. That XOM was exploring alternative fuel sources starting 30 years ago. That XOM spills one teaspoon of oil for every 1,000,000 gallons of oil it handles, which is the best in the business.

That the reason why a barrel of oil is nearly $40 is that speculators have entered the market due to the political instability in the world, and that he suspects that the price of oil will decline. That there is no shortage of oil in the supply line. Tha the USA needs an "Energy Policy" along with a water and human resources policy among others. At this point we have no real policies. That since we need oil to keep the economy going it is best not to be dependent on one source of supply and to be able to get oil/energy anywhere we can if needed.

What struck me is the scale and complexity of the energy issue and that there are no simple answers to solve the problems.