Without looking it up, I couldn't be sure, but I think the current tax break is 2k for at least the first year, maybe two, and then it steps down to 1k or something along those lines. Wouldn't swear to it though.

As for the shale issue, the simpler harvest-bake process is grossly s'expensive, yes. BUT.. it becomes commercially viable once the cost of gas begins exceeding $3/gal domestically.. which is right where we're at. If prices stabilize above $3 or continue to rise (as I believe they will due to insane increases in Chinese/Indian rising demand).. then all of a sudden we're in the driver's seat in terms of energy reserves. There's also a healthy reserve in the Gulf Coast of both shale and "crude", but environmental concerns (which are a bit silly, given that if *we* don't do it, another country is going to drill in the same international waters.. and then sell it back to us at an insane profit anyway) are keeping that from happening domestically.

You're essentially correct in so much that as long as we continue to demand insane levels of energy consumption, there will be no ultimate answer as we are out of balance with nature. That's just a statement of fact, regardless of how "green" or "corporate" any person's tendencies may lie. I think, in that regard, the Native American population had things right.

Oh well, it probably doesn't matter any bit anyway, being that we're due to get vaporized in 2028 from that gigantic asteroid that some studies have as being within 0.0002318 AU's of us (that's *inside* the moon's orbit for those keeping score).