A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring
     —Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1709)

Recovering politician and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore gave a rousing speech last week urging America to move to renewables to power the grid by 2018.

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans – in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen...

It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings
    — anonymous

The fat lady is warming up
    — anonymous

I now believe that the hypothesis of a near or medium-term peak in the world's oil supply is confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt. A shift in emphasis that speaks to reducing our demand for oil and examining alternatives to oil is now required. I will be taking that road in the future, leaving specific concerns about the oil supply behind.

He'll cheat without scruple, who can without fear
    —Benjamin Franklin

Charles Dingell (U.S. House of Representatives, D, Mich), Michael Masters (Masters Capital Management), and Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (the King of Saudi Arabia) all agree on one thing: greedy speculators playing a rigged game are behind the steeply rising oil price. This rare, exquisite consensus is described in Gas could fall to $2 if Congress acts, analysts say.

A lie may take care of the present, but it has no future
    —anonymous

Deceptive statements now dominate the political discourse on America's oil crisis in the 2008 presidential campaign. The confused debate about Republican supply-side measures versus Democratic demand-side measures entirely misses the central point: domestic oil production is about to experience a mini-peak in the years 2010-11 and then resume its inevitable decline.