<>>>As long as the price of oil is allowed to go up as it becomes more scarce (assuming it does), the market will take care of the rest.

Deal with the problem before it becomes more scarce, and delay the inevitable for as long a possible.



This is the "planned economy" approach as opposed to the free market approach. It seems eminently sensible to try to use force to "cook" supply or demand to try and adjust the other half of the equation, anticipating where you think the economy is going to go, what you think resources are going to do, and Lord knows it's tempting. Some of the greatest minds on Earth have tried it.

It just doesn't work.

If you don't let the price of a resource go up, or set artificial limits to try to keep the price down, the market can't adjust for it. Letting the price of oil go up will not only encourage conservation, it will bring alternative fuels and power systems that are now too expensive into competition with petroleum.

It is difficult for many people to rely on something as seemingly chaotic as a free market. Often, it's a lot like jumping into a lake on a foggy night. It seems like anything but a sure thing.

Think rain forest. Millions of species, each looking out only for its own kind, and interested only in killing and eating everything else. The ultimate robber barons. Yet it not only somehow balances, it produces a system that is capable of recovering from major damage if left alone. A cornfield, which contains only a single, controlled species, artificially maintained, can be wiped out by a single disease.

If you decide to be "pro-active" on this particular thing, where does it stop?