Eliminate use of petroleum in motorway and car park paving. Today's concrete composites can more than compensate for asphalt.

Reduce petroleum use in packaging: Whatever happened to paper boxes and shopping bags?

Expand the installation of seawater generated electrics: Surely with all the waves crashing upon UK shores (especially during storms) there's sufficient force to generate the megawatts currently produced thru fossil fuel plants. Divert some of that capacity (at peak force times) to produce hydrogen from seawater - storing/piping it inland to eliminate use of LNG in homes and industry.

Actually solicit (and support) energy innovations from the minds of people across the globe. Make less use of NESTA resources for 'artsy-f_rtsy' applications and more to solve REAL problems - such as this.

Most observers recognise the American administration (oil execs all) will not support these measures - let Britain take the lead and be the font of progress once again.

Larry, Middletown, USA/NY

what's the fuss over $80 a barrel? taking currency depreciation of the usDollar into account , oil is cheaper than it was since the 60s.

Remove government taxes and duties and oil is dirt cheap.

You want cheaper oil ? stop blaming opec and get the greedy government to cut back their cut of the pie and then see how really cheap oil is .

Go into any bar and pay £1.50 for a tiny bottle of WATER! say 1/4 a litr bottle. That works out at a princely £26 per gallon ( maths = 4*£1.50 = 6 per litre . 4.5 litres in a gallon . that makes £26 a gallon for H2O . Who's robiing who?eh

sean, sussex, UK

Fixed price for oil? Good idea. But let us start with fixed price for refrigerators, cars and other manufactured goods coming from the West to the less developed countries. You see, the good Lord knows how to distribute resources. I paid over 20,000 pound sterling for the tuition of my son in the medical school of a British University last session. His British colleagues paid a stipend. I harbour no grudge. Please price your products the way you want and let the poor do what they like with their own endowment. Any attempt to attack OPEC in whatever form, will set the world ablaze. A word is enough for the wise.

Salam Ayub, Wolverhampton, UK

The time to introduce alternative fuels is long overdue. The motor industry is refuses to recognise there is a problem by continuing to focus on speed and performance; flying continues to increase in popularity and travel/commuting habits do not change.

Whilst we continue to be reliant on foreign energy sources our economies will be at the mercy of exploitative regimes.

glynn hughes, Horsham, UK

Oil is cheap at $82 a barrel. Demand has hardly slowed at all after the leap from 50 to 82$. It needs to be well over 100, more like 200$ to really reduce demand, and balance things out a bit.

This will happen - it's just a question of when. It's a finite resource being used up very rapidly. It will simply go to the highest bidder in the near future.

ab, quimper, france

Why do we allow OPEC to have us over a barrel.

OPEC is a cartel and should be brought to book by the British and Americans, if I was British Airways or other companies accused of running cartels I would refuse to pay fines until OPEC was also walloped.

Why do we have a floating price for this commodity, surely the time is right to go to a fixed price system, where Saudi light Crude is fixed at say $60 dollars a barrel with a 10% movement band to ion out supply/demand issues.

Then the world economy would know exactly what measures to take to stabilise and imporve global economies.

I would go further and suggest $5 dollars should be paid iby buyers and put nto a fund to benefit AFrican states to bring them up to standard and reduce poverty.

Then everyone would benefit from Oil and the price would be a high at $71 to buyers if the 10% on the topside is required or as low as $59 if at the lower 10% margin.

I am sure OPEC could live with that and so could we all

Peter, Chelmsford, Chelmsford, England

Even if the oil price gose up to $150 pB
I think its still reasonable price for a non recouped ending resource.These oil countries have no thing to sale except
these few millions of oil barrels , after that they will die unless the west become
merciful - as they were in the past -and give them some of their children's brads
DO you think the west will help them when their oil ends ?

meranof, mosco, USSR