$3 a gallon gas and $70 a barrel oil represent a teachable moment. The results of my schooling can be found here:

So is biodiesel made from restaurant fry oil the answer to our nation’s transportatioan fuel woes?

The short answer, energy experts say, is “no.” But once the caveats are added in, the longer answer is a complex “maybe”— biofuels made of waste from our food production system, along with a host of other options, suddenly look not only viable but necessary.

“There’s not one single silver bullet,” Assistant Energy Secretary Karen Harbert said during a recent visit to Albuquerque.

The goal was an overview of all the major petro-alternatives that are on the table right now, trying to give some sense of how viable they are, and what their strengths and weaknesses might be. It was a tricky story, because pretty much all the “experts” are advocates for one of particular technological solution. It took some hunting to find people who are looking at the full picture, trying to find apples-to-apples ways of comparing the options.

Also in today’s Journal, Rosalie Rayburn does much the same thing for electricity supplies here in New Mexico.