The right direction being towards Riyadh?
Someone will buy Saudi oil regardless of whether the U.S. wants it. Upping production of oil in the States merely draws out and further intensifies the extent to which our economy and communities are designed around an energy source that is not always going to be here for us and in the meanwhile makes it convenient for most consumers to ignore serious environmental concerns tied to their lifestyles.
Expensive fuel would at least create incentive for the private sector to scheme up something new and workable - in contrast to eventually having people like me take a top-down, statist approach to the issue that will almost certainly be more coercive, less efficient, enormously controversial, and involve massive public expenditures. Someone needs to be looking at the big picture here.
You admit that an increase in fuel costs (which I agree is inevitable) will incentivize private entrepreneurs to discover/develop solutions, yet you also claim that our eventual inability to continue using oil will be catastrophic? Why would they be able to come up with a solution if costs were to increase now but not in the future?
