"We are already ten years too late," warns Tadeusz Patzek, chair of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas. He is referring to the delay in finding solutions to the looming global energy crisis, an increasingly urgent dilemma that Americans seem unwilling to address or even discuss. In this video, recorded at the World Oil Supply Debate in Madison, Wisconsin, organized by the Madison Peak Oil Group, the University of Wisconsin Energy Hub and the Madison Committee on Foreign Relations, Patzek explains not only why the United States is in such an unstable situation in terms of energy supply, but also what practical solutions might help remedy it.

—Elizabeth Whitman