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Barb -- the energy cost of extracting petroleum from oil shale is greater than what you get out of it, making it ineffective no matter how much money the oil companies are making.

The true and only feasible solution to our oncoming energy crisis is solar: with technology quickly advancing, solar panels now liberated from silicon chips (google nanosolar), and thus with prices very near dropping an incredible amount, it is very easy to see an economy with a surplus of energy coming from the ultimate clean and renewable source. Just the same solar is ideal for the consumer, as energy becomes completely free, unlike how it would be were we to transition to biofuels, hydrogen, fuel cells, or any other consumable technology. As an added benefit, the surplus of readily available energy will likely have a remarkable effect on "displacement," wherein more "work" will be done, allowing mankind to progress at our increasingly increasing(!) pace.

The danger is of course what happens if we don't transition fast enough. With oil prices skyrocketing over a relatively short time, as is required by the law of supply and demand couple with Hubbert's peak oil theory, the entire world economy would effectively crash with a pronounced snowball effect--lacking the SINGLE source of fuel that allows for products (think food, but everything else as well) to be transported.