With the dramatic increase in oil prices over the last decade, and even more dramatic dive since July, the perception for urgency regarding long term energy change is on a roller coaster ride of its own. As former Sec. of Energy James Schlesinger sums up "Americans have only two modes when it comes to energy - complacency and panic". Unfortunately, as financial deleveraging grabs center stage, we have shifted to full complacency mode, while simultaneously our long term energy situation is deteriorating rapidly. Changing our energy mix and more importantly, how we use it, has been relegated to the sidestage, as concerns about credit, jobs, and 401ks override. After all, crude oil is under $70 per barrel, and gasoline is cheap and plentiful. What's there to worry?

Below is an energy report from the General Accounting Office presented to Congress in 1979, (hat tip energymaven), followed by my own conclusion. After reading the GAO report (pdf warning), it becomes clear, almost painfully so, that we have missed a generation of opportunity.