Who honestly believes that the home country for BP, Shell or Exxon has any serious sense of urgency to move beyond an oil-based economy? What’s so urgent now that wasn’t urgent one month ago, one year ago, ten years ago or thirty years ago? This is the classic knee-jerk behavior that we see in the US and UK and many other countries during oil price increases. To act surprised now is a joke. Of course it’s urgent and of course it makes sense but scrambling at the last minute only proves how out of touch politicians are from this problem.

China has been investing in alternative energy for years and their new plan makes much more sense than this panicked attempt to sound sympathetic. With oil prices over $100 it’s only a matter of time before US politicians jump on the “we need to do something urgently” bandwagon. Talking about it during a crisis is one thing but taking action is another.