Break out the vegetable oil

During the age of tough economic times, we've seen an increase in prices of just about everything, but the most memorable is gas. Gas prices spiked in 2005 with Katrina and the damage to oil rigs, but they continued to rise as the dollar decreased in value. This is quite the double edged sword. Foreign countries are able to buy oil much cheaper than they were previously because oil is priced in USD, which is one reason that the dollar has maintained value. For supply and demand, the less oil people think we have, the more they want it and the more they're probably willing to pay for it. At the same time, however, the higher the price, the less some people will buy. If the price stays high for a long period of time, it may lead to an increase in the extra oil and thus drive prices lower because companies will want to sell their oil and not have it sitting around.
http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2008/3/10/why-gas-prices-rise-as-the-dollar-falls.html

84 million barrels of oil are produced daily, and almost all are "spoken for" or needed. There is little to no excess oil being produced, especially with developing countries increasing their demand for oil. The US alone uses around 20 million barrels a day, but the increase in demand has come from places like China & India- accounting for 45% of the increase. If oil was produced more efficiently in certain countries, there would be more oil available on the daily market, an estimated 6 million barrels. I feel that the best plan would be for the developing countries, who are now starting to use more oil, to find oil/start production within their country. This would not only help with the situation of lack of oil, but it would also create jobs and boost the growing economy.

So is the world really running out of oil or are we simply not looking in the right places and not properly using what we have? If you think about it, there are tons of undiscovered oil reserves, many of which could easily be put to use. Alaska, although it houses a wildlife reserve, has a lot of oil. There are many laws and regulations about tapping oil on a wildlife reservation site, but if worse comes to worse, will the world care about humans or animals? (Dinosaurs became extinct didn't they?) It just takes the man power to get out there and get the oil. In reality, there are many factors effecting a lessened oil production, so oil will most likely remain at a high price...until we can increase our productivity.
http://www.businessinsider.com/have-we-reached-peak-oil-2010-1

In the meantime, there are many different ways to get energy. Solar panels, wind and wave power, things that cannot run out can fuel our world. The issue is storing this energy, because it doesn't occur all of the time. Technology needs to be worked on and developed in order to do so, but that also requires funding. If the government were to provide funding for this, it would be wonderful, but it would still take years to develop. There is also the potential that people will not be willing to switch to different forms of energy, especially since many of them are more expensive than what we use today. It all boils down to how much we want it and what we're willing to do for it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4648710.stm