Producers call it “black gold,” consumers a “black hole.”

The soaring price of petroleum – now over $100 for a barrel of oil and headed towards $4 for a gallon of gasoline – has helped drag the U.S. and Maine’s economy into a recession.

Fortunately, however, high prices will accelerate the quest for alternative energy sources, precisely the kind this state has aplenty, in its forests, undeveloped land, wind, tidal rivers and coastal waters.

The U.S. consumes far more oil than it produces and must import about 60 percent of its needs. Ordinarily the price of a commodity is determined by market supply and demand, but petroleum production is controlled by a monopolistic cartel that overrides market forces.

OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, restricts production quotas to maintain high price levels. Such practices are illegal under U.S. anti-trust laws, but these laws do not extend to the sovereign countries, like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria and Venezuela, which comprise OPEC’s membership.

Oil prices can only stay up if petroleum is the sole available energy choice. Alternative energies have the potential to break OPEC’s grip by providing consumer choices and price competition. The most promising alternative energies in recent years have been wind power, tidal power and biofuels, all capable of being produced in Maine.

Historic shifts in energy sources have occurred suddenly and dramatically. For nearly 1,000 years until the 18th century, Europe used oxen, horses, water wheels, windmills and burning wood to supplement human muscle power.

In 1712, the invention of the Newcomen steam engine allowed pumping of water from mine shafts and mining of deep coal seams, and the Watt steam engine, first produced in 1775, permitted the efficient conversion of coal into steam and motive power. The result was the Industrial Revolution, fueled by “king coal.”

Edward Drake pioneered the drilling of oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859. The invention of the gasoline internal combustion engine in the late 1800s and the advent of mass- produced automobiles in the early 1900s made oil the preeminent fuel.

But the time has arrived for the next generation of energy.

Recent technological improvements have made the venerable windmill so efficient it can produce large quantities of clean electrical energy. Ironically, Texas – the center of the U.S. oil production since the “Spindletop” gusher in 1901 – is now the country’s largest wind energy producer with almost 4,400 megawatts of capacity.

In Maine, one 42-megawatt wind farm is in operation at Mars Hill. Two others have been approved by the Maine Land Use Regulatory Commission at Stetson Ridge in Washington County, and Kibby Township in Franklin County.

Gov. John Baldacci’s Task Force on Wind Power Development called last month for at least 2,000 megawatts of wind power in Maine by 2015 and at least 3,000 by 2020. The report stated: “Because of its size and geography, Maine has as much wind resource potential onshore as the rest of New England combined.”

Tidal power is another alternative energy that has attracted increasing interest. Turbines placed at the mouth of tidal rivers or bays, where ebbs and flows are large and predictable, act like underwater windmills.

Central Maine Power currently charges almost 9 cents per kilowatt-hour. In 2006, an Electric Power Research Institute study concluded underwater tidal turbines at three locations in New England, including one in Maine, could produce electricity for 4.2 to 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Maine tidal projects have been proposed for the Piscataqua, Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers, and the Western Passage of Passamaquoddy Bay

Biofuels are also strong competitors. Fermentation and distillation can reduce almost any plant matter to alcohol compounds known as ethanol (ethyl alchohol) and methanol (methyl alchohol). Techniques for making alcohol from plants, akin to producing “moonshine” in clandestine stills during Prohibition, are inexpensive compared with the drilling and refining of petroleum..

To date, most federal biofuel subsidies have gone to corn ethanol, a valuable crop that’s also an ingredient in most food products and livestock feed. Increased demand for corn has resulted in higher food prices.

The emphasis need not be on corn, however. Ethanol and methanol can be derived from grasses, algae, or wood, from non-grain crops like potatoes, or from municipal garbage – all of which Maine has in abundant quantity.

If the federal government required auto manufacturers to build flex-fuel engines capable of utilizing either gasoline, ethanol or methanol, then locally produced fuels could compete with gasoline at the pump. Brazil, which has such a program, recently achieved energy self-sufficiency, with ethanol providing 30 percent of the country’s automotive fuel.

Critical changes in federal energy policy are needed to optimize incentives for alternative energy and disincentives for continued petroleum use. Such changes are inevitable, and Maine should position itself to take advantage of them.

When it does, brown and blue gold, from Maine’s soil, wind and water, will help displace OPEC’s black gold.

Elliott L. Epstein, a local attorney, is founder and board president of Museum L-A and an adjunct history instructor at Central Maine Community College. He can be reached at [email protected]