CCF Editor's Note: Rep. Markey seems to be living in his own bubble as noted by his comments below. Biofuels have been shown to cause more trouble than they are worth (literally), decades of not drilling off the Continental Shelf and ANWR have left us slaves to middle-eastern oil interests, and hybrid cars are the domain of the upper middle-class, who can afford the sticker price. And, our planet is being boiled alive. Good heavens.

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Experts projected that demand for energy will continue to grow and called for the use of biofuels and other measures to respond to the nation's energy crisis, at a committee meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

"The heat has slowly been turned up on the American consumer and now they are being boiled alive," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. "The same can be said for our planet. A fundamental change is needed in the way America uses energy."

"We cannot drill our way out of this crisis because we simply don't have the reserves," said Markey, adding that demand will increase 30% over the next two decades.

Markey said that Americans should be using more hybrid cars, biofuels and public transportation.

The meeting is set to focus on the prognosis for international oil supply and demand in the coming decades, according to the committee. The committee said it is trying to provide an accurate projection for prices, given the wide disparity between analysts, some of whom project $200 a barrel.

Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist for Deutsche Bank, projected that oil prices will drop to $105 a barrel next year, and will eventually "settle" at $85.

But despite this, Sieminski believes that demand will increase, to 97 million barrels a day in 2015 and 111 million barrels a day in 2030, from its 2008 level of 87 million. He said that most of the production growth will come from OPEC, which will produce 45 million barrels a day in 2015 and 55 million in 2030, up from 35 million in 2008.

To meet growing demand, Sieminski said production will rely on nonconventional sources.

"Future projects are likely to be more complex and remote, resulting in higher costs per unit of energy produced," he said, in prepared statements.

Guy Caruso, administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, said the use of "conventional oil" will play a declining role in the overall importance of liquid fuels in the coming decades. Caruso said that overall liquid fuel use will increase 15% from 2006 to 2030, while crude oil production will decline 15%. This is because the use of non-conventional fuel will increase, he said.

"The share of oil, and especially conventional oil, in the overall liquids mix, is also expected to decline," said Caruso, in a prepared statement.

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