Why oil's so expensive

Solar has the problem of storage. It's easiest to use as it's generated. It's hard to imagine an industrial economy being powered solely by it. I've looked into using it as a hot water heating system, but it requires certain lifestyle changes to be really effective as a replacement for combustion. Then again, if heating oil goes to $6 a gallon I will change my lifestyle.

The price of oil is dropping largely because of market based conservation (ie: gas prices being high). Considering this, I actually think that the way to create market based innovation is to tax petrochemical usage to prevent the corresponding drop in prices that would lead to increased usage.

Any "energy independent" solution will have to rely very heavily on conservation as the longest pole in the tent. The era of driving Ford F250's to your desk job is and should be over.