Matt Simmons is as perplexed as anyone that it has fallen to him to take on OPEC, Exxon, the Saudis, and all the other misguided defenders of conventional wisdom in the oil patch. Why should one investment banker with a penchant for research be required to point out what he regards as the obvious - that from here on out, oil supplies can"t meet demand, and if we don"t act soon to solve this crisis, World War III could be looming?

Why should a man who scorns most environmentalists have to argue that locally grown produce and wind power are the way of the future? Why should a lifelong Republican need to be the one to point out that his party"s new mantra - "Drill, baby, drill!" - won"t really fix anything and that his party"s presidential candidate is clueless about energy? That the spike in oil prices earlier this year wasn"t a temporary market anomaly and the recent retreat in prices is just a misleading calm before a calamitous storm? That we"re headed toward $500-a-barrel oil?

"I find it ironic that here we have the biggest industry on earth, and I"m one of the few people to figure out that we have a major problem," he says, in his confident if not quite brash way. "And I did it all in my spare time. How stupid and tragic is that? I shouldn"t be one of the only folks that actually has a handful of ideas of how we can keep from blowing each other up and get through this."

Indeed, Simmons isn"t the obvious candidate to be the bearer of bad news about oil. He"s spent his career working in the business, has lived in Houston for decades, and is such an industry insider that he helped edit the Bush campaign"s comprehensive energy plan in the 2000 election - the document that was ultimately more or less rubber-stamped by Vice President Dick Cheney"s infamous secret Energy Task Force. Over the past 35 years, his boutique investment bank, Simmons & Co., has helped finance and shape much of the country"s existing oil-services business. With profits gushing, you might expect him to be celebrating. ...

The soaring price of crude - it has risen from below $20 a barrel in 2002 to as high as $147 earlier this year - has helped thrust Simmons further into the spotlight. He was one of the main voices, for instance, in the recent oil-shock documentary "Crude Awakening," and his book has now sold more than 100,000 copies. His willingness to make bold predictions about how high crude may go has made him an A-list guest for cable TV news programs and a go-to source for newspaper reporters covering oil and gas. In 2005, when oil was $58 a barrel, he predicted it would be at or above $100 within a few years. Now he sees it climbing to $200, $300, or higher. "There really is no roof on oil prices at this point," he says.

Being so outspoken, of course, invites criticism, and Simmons has endured plenty. But he has also won a lot of high-profile admirers. "Like most people who ignore conventional wisdom, he was scoffed at, ridiculed, and denied," says commodities guru Jim Rogers. "And now, of course, people are starting to say, "Oh, well, I thought of that."" Billionaire oil and gas investors Richard Rainwater and Boone Pickens both heap praise on Simmons"s analytical abilities. Maine"s Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who recently began consulting with Simmons on energy issues, says, "I think he"s issuing a clarion call that policymakers need to listen to."

In his own upbeat way, he despairs about what is to come. As the price of oil has fallen this summer (to $101 at press time), Simmons has watched in dismay as complacency has returned and the champions of do-nothingism have popped out of the woodwork to say I told you so. Not that it"s lessened his conviction about the road ahead. "I do think there are a growing number of people who are getting it," he says. "But I guess it just reminds me that as a society, we don"t have the ability to actually come to grips with a crisis until it"s hit us in the face. I am discouraged enough now to think that we"re going to have to have a really nasty shock before we wake people up."

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