Call me a skeptic.

All this stuff will do is drive up the cost of oil and make alternative energy more acceptable.

Viable but less economically favoriate alternatives already exist. It's a function of price, mostly, that keeps oil where it is.

We can avoid these conflicts becoming the main theme of this century if governments (including the US) invest a lot of money in hydrogen fuel cells. As of now, the US has invested over $100bn USD in the war in Iraq, which, among other things, is directly and indirectly related to oil. Don't say it was mainly a humanitarian effort, because we really rushed to help those people in the Sudan a few weeks ago (notice the sarcasm). If we threw that kind of money at developing hydrogen technologies, we would be a lot closer to the goal of having a hydrogen based economy, which as of now won't be reached for a minimum of 25 years. Another 25 years of greenhouse gas build up will guarantee global warming, rising tides, and mass destruction. Combine that with international conflicts that will escalate with the upcoming scarcity of oil, and add the fact that the Saudi's are barely maintaining a controlled situation in their country, and the outlook with oil looks grim. Oh, plus, one reason the terrorists attack us is because we have our hands in their business (we have military bases in their countries, influence who is in charge of their governments, etc.). So, imagine we didn't need their oil, and we weren't throwing up millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the air. That would be nice, eh? We need some government subsidies here.