More importantly, we are AWASH in convertible hydrocarbons, from agriculture waste, like the Butterball turkey carcasses being converted into diesel in Carthage, Missouri right now, to sewage sludge, to wood scraps and now algae that excretes ethanol, not to mention coal and oil shales.
The only issue is the cost of the finished product. At $4/gallon, it appears that many alternate technologies are way above break even.
The notable fact will be: watch what the left, the news media and their sympathetic politicians cheer. Notice that when stunning breakthroughs are made, they hardly cheer, and what cheering there is has a very short half-life.
For example: A process was recently announced where algae, swimming in seawater is used to produce ethanol. One would think this is a world-class announcement, one that environmentalists would cheer loudly because it is right in line with what they have been demanding for years.
Right? Judge for yourself. A search of news.google.com for “algae ethanol seawater” returns SEVEN hits:
“http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=algae+ethanol+seawater&ie=UTF-8
see best story at:
http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/13/the-algae-claims-just-keep-getting-better/
See PDF presentation by the Office of the Secretary of Defense on the Clean Fuels Initiative. Contains maps of US hydrocarbon resources.
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/energy_expo/2005/pdfs/t_s4c.pdf
Thanks for the link