After Oil: Alternative energy slow to take hold

After Oil: Alternative energy slow to take hold - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com:
by John W. Schoen, Senior Producer -- MSNBC -- July 28, 2005

Thirty years after the "oil shocks" of the 1970s signaled the end of cheap, reliable supplies of oil, the global economy is still dependant on petroleum. And despite billions of dollars in research grants and government subsidies, no alternative energy source has yet been developed to replace it.
Now, with oil prices at $60 a barrel and supplies tighter than they were 30 years ago, analysts, scientists and businesses working to develop alternatives say it will be decades, at least, before the global economy's reliance on oil can be broken.