We're living in a super price-sensitive and competitive market. Companies are totally preoccupied with short-term survival. With that kind of mentality, you shouldn't be surprised that energy research budgets have been on the skids for years.

We have no credible emission policy at the federal level.

In the short term, natural gas suppliers might feel they have an enormous amount of leverage. In almost every instance, that position was a flawed obsession, revealing the gas producer to be an unreliable supplier.

If automobile efficiency gets serious then hybrid cars may not be the best choice.

What is really happening is every nation is going off and doing what they would have done anyway under the umbrella of Kyoto, but operating unilaterally.

Some firms have already moved ahead.