I have a question.

If there were NO Fossil Fuels of any type stuck in the ground, to be dug out by the monkeymen, what would we be doing in the year 2008 for power(energy) in terms of a "civilized" society?

Without abundant coal the industrial revolution would never have happened. We would still live in a low population agrarian society (which may be preferable to the current mess we've gotten ourselves into).

It would have been nearly impossible to develop our level of technology without the cheap, abundant energy provided by fossil fuels. We can only hope that we have enough of it left to build an economy based on renewable energy, or we're in for a nasty surprise when the wells run dry.