Are we going to run out of oil anytime soon? Certainly very soon if we stop doing exploration. And supply will probably start going way down in the next 10 to 20 years if we do not improve our exploration and oil-extraction techniques. As I understand it, though, this has been forecast repeatedly for the last 50 years or so. However, techniques continue to get better and we have still barely scratched the surface of the available oil. Less than 1% of the world's oil has been extracted. Right now, oil is NOT a scarce resource, nor is it likely to be for some time. When it finally does start to become more scarce, as the price rises, alternative fuels will suddenly become economical, so we really shouldn't have to worry about that.

Any current argument about oil being a scarce resource is bunk. This invalidates most of the Detroit Project arguments. The arguments about pollution hold more validity, but for some reason, I don't hear them argued more often.