by Tim Mccardle

Created on: July 10, 2008

Higher fuel prices are the pre-eminent world economic issue right now. Higher energy costs coupled with increased commodity prices virtually across the board are causing economic hardship across a broad spectrum of the world populace. Poor countries with histories of supply problems are experiencing riots sparked by higher food prices while the worlds richer nations struggle to keep their strong economies afloat. Maybe even worse, vast sums of oil revenue are creating stockpiles of cash in some of the worlds worst governed and most anti-democratic nations on this planet. This gives them the ability to shun world opinion and weather economic sanctions while crushing dissent at home with an iron fist. The current situation is fraught with risk of an deep economic slowdown so world leaders cannot push oil wielding dictators too far for fear of a reduction in world oil supply. Total world excess energy supply is 2 percent. That means that if any country with significant production capacity were to turn off the spigot, the world would be left scrambling to supply our energy needs and price increases would make $4 a gallon gasoline favorable.

However bad things seem to be there will be a bright side to the current energy situation.
World leaders have called OPEC to pump more oil, but if they could they would because the current situation is not in their favor. The recent price run-up in gas and oil has caused significant market forces to come into action. All across the world there is a massive effort aimed at producing energy in new ways that will revolutionize the entire world economy in the years to come. While oil will continue to be a very valuable commodity, it will not continue to produce the windfalls that the world's oil exporting nations are enjoying because new forms of energy production will replace oil as a transportation and electricity generation fuels. Had oil not reached the apparently magic number of $4 a gallon then this would have taken many years to occur.
From do-it-yourself kits to run diesel engines on used fry grease to the Venter Institute researching tailor made bacteria that excrete bio-fuels Americans and people of all the world are putting vast resources and brain power into a solution to the energy crisis. Granted Craig has been talking about making eco-friendly fuels since his team successfully decoded the human genome, but he has been joined by a great many thinkers and businessmen since it has become apparent that gasoline is not going

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