Clayton Parker, vice president of Magma Design Automation and formerly a U.S. deputy assistant trade representative in the Clinton administration, saw the current dilemma as inevitable prelude to solving the energy crisis in the long run. "Prices going up is the best way of dealing with it," he said. "Let the market do its work."

The crisis, added Russell Lefevre, president of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE), can't be solved by Congress. "I don't think any one bill you can conjure can actually fix it," he said, "There will be a really important energy bill next year, and I think what we will see is something to encourage innovation."

On the other hand, the panelists were broadly optimistic about the power of innovation to guide America away from its dependence on foreign oil. Among the measures certain to prod this wave of new ideas will be legislation forcing industries to limit carbon emissions and to do so through a cap-and-trade system similar to many now already in use in Europe.

Vicki Hadfield, president of the Washington-based SEMI North America, cited rapid growth in "clean energy" technologies in many U.S. industries, especially 40 percent growth last year in the solar energy sector. As oil prices rise, the "grid equity" gap between oil and alternative sources shrinks, she said. Hadfield added that solar-cell efficiency, aided by nanotechnology advances, will improve, further narrowing the gap.

"The U.S. should focus as much on opportunity as on threat and should really harness our resources to make the U.S. one of the strongest players" in solar and alternate energy development, she said.

"Let's be great people on energy production," added panelist Todd Cutler, senior worldwide marketing director at Agilent. "The government can help a bunch. Those billions go a long way."