High oil prices have a benefit — encouraging innovation, exploration and conservation  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an article on the benefit of high oil prices - High gas and oil prices have a benefit — encouraging innovation, exploration and conservation. They inadvertently note what a great contrarian indicator Daniel Yergin is when it comes to oil price predictions as well.

With oil prices in a spectacular upward march, speculators eager to make a killing plunged into the oil futures market. Energy analyst Daniel Yergin proclaimed oil "the new gold."

In recent weeks, those three factors have had a reverse effect on prices. Energy demand is weakening, the dollar has strengthened against the euro and speculators are fleeing the futures market. ...

It was nice to pay "only" $3.59 for gas six days ago — 39 cents less than the $3.98 I paid several weeks earlier. But even with that 39-cent drop, I still paid 3 1/2 times the average Texas price for regular near the end of 2001 — $1.01.

We’re not out of the woods on gas prices yet, and might never be. We should keep running scared. We must think about that much-debated "peak oil" moment when global crude production reaches its zenith and begins an inevitable decline. Some say that day is already here, or soon will be.

I’m guessing it could be 20 years away. But even if that’s correct, we would be fools not to be preparing for it now.

One blessing of $4 gas is that it forced us to question our incredibly wasteful energy practices. Americans drove 12.2 billion fewer miles in June, a 4.7-percent decline from a year earlier. U.S. automakers, reeling from horrible earnings reports, are shifting production to small, fuel-efficient cars and accelerating development of alternatives to the traditional internal combustion engine — most notably, plug-in hybrid and electric cars.

General Motors is airing commercials about its new electric Volt car during the Summer Olympics and plans to begin selling it in 2010. GM has said that the Volt will cost $30,000 to $40,000 and that it expects to sell 100,000 annually starting in 2012, The Associated Press reported Wednesday .

Clean, renewable wind and solar power are making advances. Federal and state laws passed in recent years are, through mandates and incentives, leading us toward more energy-efficient cars, buildings, homes, appliances and light bulbs. ...

Holding the Olympics in pollution-choked Beijing has brought home another reality — even if we can afford fossil fuels, environmental and health concerns dictate curbing consumption.

A big drop in gas prices would temporarily help our pocketbooks. But if it caused us to abandon our fledgling energy revolution, it would be much more costly than $4 gas in the long term.