The human race is well known for actually inventing important things in times of stress. Right now there is no stress, the big energy companies oppose any kind of serious research, and they can be very "persuasive". Therefore, I wouldn't expect any REAL and VIABLE technology until we really do run out of oil, which you needn't worry, won't be anytime soon (especially if we can drill from the oceans, then you'd have practically a limitless amount of oil, but that depends on other fields of research).