Europe is in a weak position. There oil and gas is all imported, some electric is produced with nuclear (70%) in France, some hydro up in Scandinavia. Wretchard’s tables shows who are the big consumers. RAH summarized the political situation nicely. The Europeans have to over come the Greens which in many ways are the unwitting “fifth column” for the Russians. For the US, the high price of oil and now the Russian invasion is the motivation to develop our own oil and gas reserves, explore coal gasification and oil shale production (not cost-effective yet). The US has to go with a rapidly expanded nuclear program and move to electric powered land transportation (like we had in the US until GM and Goodyear killed the trolley after WWII) Imagine a bullet Mag-Lev train from LA to NY!. Energy independence is what will truly “make history”. Solar satellite power stations, that were proposed back in the 70′s by Dr. Gerard O’Neill, can be built with today’s technology and launched into L4 and L5 orbital slots(equidistant between earth and moon)and beam down to earth an endless supply of electricity. The current do nothing Congress is disgraceful …fiddling while Rome burns and pursuing politics that’s completely counter to energy independence.We have Al Gore and our own Greeny fifth column to contend with. Our two “oil men” in the White house should be doing way more on this issue too, but they are lame ducks. It up to the private sector (Big Oil) to solve the energy independence problem. The US government needs to get out of the way and let the energy companies go after it before other countries do…which brings us back to the Caspian Sea oil transportation corridor and why Putin’s tanks are siting in Georgia right now.