[mtrawls]

Sure, looking for oil in Alaska is a "short term solution" -- it will only last for so long (I'm not expert, but our lifetimes at least). And research is a long term solution -- alone, one will put you in a bigger problem in the future and the other will keep you in a growing problem for a whlie, but together they seem to work reseanably well. But, you might be suprised, a heck of a lot of research is being put in alternative energy sources. And a heck of a lot of dollars. But it's a tough problem, there's no easy answer, and it's likely a ways off yet. E.g., nuclear fusion presents an ideal solution, since there is no waste product, excpet maybe too much energy ... but it presents a physically interesting confinement problem (hard too understand, let alone solve!). Other sources of energy that have been developed recently run into the problem of being more costly in energy in terms of their creation that the energy they will ever produce. Windmills and solar cells work great at a given time and for a given geographic region, although we are a long ways off from being really efficient. My major qualm with the idea of the "50 cents gas tax" is it presents the idea that a solution will be found shortly (really, 50 cents is quite a bit! and I drive over 80 miles a day for school, so I feel the pain at the pump, believe me), and it presents the idea that throwing money at the problem will fix it. There are many other issues to be considered, many political, besides money -- afterall, there's a lot of money in it already. And, of course, throwing money at a bloated government with holes in its wallet doesn't seem to be the best solution, from a tax-payer standpoint anyway.