I find this totally fascinating; there was also a great episode of Modern Marvels on the History Channel recently that dealt with "green" energy such as solar power, ethanol made with switchgrass, and wind turbines. Did you see it?

And the issue of power is an interesting one, too. I think energy independence would buy us plenty of clout on the international scene, but unless we develop a non-petroleum based substitute for plastic that can be feasibly mass-produced, we're still going to have to deal with OPEC. I've read that someone developed a plastic substitute made from corn, but it's lunacy to use a vital food source for a non-food product, as we're seeing right now with corn ethanol.