S&P report suggests politics, not oil prices, greatest threat to alternative fuel technology

According to a special energy report published this week by Standard & Poor's (S&P), it is governmental regulations--not oil producers--that have the most impact on alternative fuel technology such as hybrids, ethanol, and even new fuel sources as oil sands. "In the U.S., the biggest threat to the broader availability and use of oil substitutes is political," says S&P chief economist David Wyss. "Were the U.S. to abolish the gasoline tax and control oil prices, for example, the effect would be to encourage Americans to keep on wasting energy while doing nothing to expand the supply. Higher prices are the market's signal for people to use less and energy producers to find more, and anything that short-circuits this signal makes the problem more difficult to solve."
The report discusses increasing public interests in alternative fuel technology as well as renewed interest in other fuel sources as oil sands. It foresees, though, such alternatives will continue to remain small players worldwide for at least  the next 25 years.

[Source: Standard & Poor's via PR Newswire]