The anger playing out at gasoline pumps throughout the land, the panic and pandering in the halls of governments worldwide, and the sky-is-falling scenarios in the world's media are not trends that will fade away by this time next year. It is a tipping point. Everywhere you turn, people are getting cranky about energy and their voices are getting louder. I've not seen anything like this in my 25 years of watching the energy industry. Political ultimatums. Government expropriation. Deal rollbacks. Backpedaling. Some observers predict the emerging fight over resources will be the new Cold War. In May, Dick Cheney warned Russia about using its Gazprom hole card against Europe, and asked Kazakhstan to reroute its oil pipelines that will feed the West, to avoid Russian territory. Meanwhile, Putin will host the G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg, with this year's theme being energy security and cooperation. I believe that as time goes on, competition for secure energy supplies at some reasonable price will worsen. That can be reversed when and if the world finds more oil and gas supply, or a greater percentage of our energy mix is derived from synthetic fuels, biofuels, clean coal, solar and wind power. For now, there is no getting around the reality that the national oil companies control three-fourths of the world's oil and gas reserves. Now that commodity prices are so high, they are rightly carving out bigger royalties, taxes, acreage and ultimately, physical control of E&P operations within their borders. But the roll-call of contentious states is getting longer. Venezuela. Russia. Nigeria. At press time, Bolivia nationalized its natural gas industry and Ecuador took back a block from Occidental Petroleum-the end of a long-standing contract dispute. What's next? Here at home, the esteemed Washington crowd is confused. Someone floated a proposal to undo some of the industry incentives just enacted in the landmark Energy Policy Act of 2005. Then a Senate committee finally-after 26 years-approved drilling in ANWR. This spring, Congressional committees took up the idea of drilling offshore both U.S. coasts-but on the other hand, others called for a punitive windfall-profits tax on the oil companies. Last November, the chief executives of the Big 5 (ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell) were called before the U.S. Senate to defend themselves against charges of price-gouging. But maybe there is a glimmer of hope. At the same time that energy charges and counter-charges are flying about, public education and public relations campaigns have gathered steam. The Discovery Channel has been running a series on how different E&P companies are restoring production since the hurricanes in the Gulf. In May, after earnings season, the CEOs of ExxonMobil and Chevron appeared on "The Today Show" to explain how we get oil, and why it costs what it does. Both men did a credible job. They appeared professional, calm and sane, not evil, corrupt nor flashy. Host Matt Lauer conceded to Chevron's David O'Reilly that it appears the American public should get used to the good times being over, as far as low energy prices are concerned. So, the word is getting out. Realization is setting in. In a few short months, the industry has gotten terrible publicity, but ironically, that is causing better public understanding than one could hope. All the various proposals by API and IPAA and The Center for Energy Literacy to educate the public have been co-opted by these highly visible media events. The industry could never buy this much publicity. Now General Motors is running green ads, following on the heels of BP and Toyota's Prius. Chevron billboards about energy use and the E&P outlook greet travelers in major airports. News accounts reveal that the worried U.S. Air Force is studying ways to use synthetic gas-to-liquids fuel to reduce its outrageously expensive jet-fuel costs, in a joint venture with Syntroleum Corp. of Tulsa. B-52s will test it this summer. Simmons & Co. International initiated coverage of the solar industry in May, with the analysts admitting they are "unabashedly optimistic." But big challenges remain, as they soon discovered. One of them inquired about installing a photovoltaic system on his home in Houston. He ran into a big dose of reality-Texas companies providing such equipment are few, and the minimum cost quoted was $21,000. "Assuming a typical 3,000-square-foot home uses approximately 1,700 kilowatt hours per month, the installed solar system we discussed would fulfill only 17% to 30% of total energy needs. With high costs, minimal monthly electrical bill cost elimination, and a payback period of over 40 years, solar installation in Houston without subsidies is very much uneconomical," the report concluded. So, it's back to the future-oil and natural gas. At press time, roughly 350 new and refurbished land rigs were to join the fleet by 2007, and 90 new offshore rigs between now and 2009, according to speakers at a Calyon Securities USA conference in May. Sure hope we let them drill.