Fueling the Future: The Cost of Oil Dependence and the Prospects for Alternatives

Recent increases in oil prices illustrate the world’s dependence on oil supplies from countries with unstable or oppressive governments. Severin Borenstein discusses the long-term implications of the developed world’s reliance on imports from the Middle East and Russia. Daniel Kammen will follow with a survey of renewable energy technologies — solar, wind, and biomass — that have undergone dramatic improvements over the past decade and are now poised to compete directly with the existing fossil fuel-based energy technologies.