[JasonC]

That is true, and improved biofuels are especially promising as an oil replacement (though they make CO2 just like oil does) in terms of the technology coming on line and to be expected in the next 10 years or so. But alternates other than ethanol still only contribute a fraction of 1% of human energy use. Hydropower is more important, and nuclear vastly more important. Coal is not scarce, is cheap, and is more important than all of them. Coal's supposed black mark is its CO2 footprint, and that appears to be largely based on unfounded fears. If we don't care about CO2 footprints in the near term, coal and ethanol look like easy replacements for expensive oil.

[sourcery]

Very interesting!