Qatar’s oil minister, Abdullah Hamad al-Attiyah, sent a shudder through the oil markest today when he suggested that OPEC may not be able to meet the world’s demand for oil by the end of this year.

“OPEC is at its highest production in history. I am concerned about that. If we reach the full capacity now, we will tighten in the fourth quarter,” Dow Jones Newswires quoted al-Attiyah as saying. “The spare capacity will be smaller and smaller, reaching a plateau when there is no more oil.”

A U.S. analysis agreed with this sentiment:

Victor Shum, oil analyst at Texas-based energy consultants Purvin & Gertz said that “$50 prices are really supported by the view that we better keep buying because in the second half of the year, demand will be tight.”

Rapid growth in demand in Asia and the U.S. is overwhelming the oil producers’ ability to grow supply.

If an oil squeeze comes this year it will only be a preview of what is coming when the world reaches peak oil. The end of cheap oil is going shock people; most people haven’t even heard of it. Adjusting to the new reality will be hard.

But all of the solutions will be green solutions–they will be renewable, sustainable, and local. A majority of the 10 key values could be invoked trying to adjust to a lower energy future. It is the Green Party’s challange to come up with specific solutions to the looming crisis.

Third parties in this country have had their most profound influence by introducing new ideas into the mainstream, from the Free Soil Party and anti-slavery to the Socialist Party and the (admittedly watered down) welfare state and civil rights. Liberals haven’t come up with a decent new idea on their own since–well, maybe never. It is up to Greens to show the way to a sustainable future.