As an Iraqi pointed out in the post below, we could have bought one hell of a lot of oil for what we spent on removing Saddam from power.

In point of fact, there are plenty of other sources of oil, including Russia. Iraq was never a major oil supply issue for the world, and still isn't.

As extracting oil becomes "more difficult and expensive," the price will go up, and alternatives will be found. That's how it works with resources. And as prices go up, more exotic methods of extraction become feasible. Solutions are found, and the choices are made by individuals, not forced on them by fanatics.

But of course, like most totalitarian collectivists*, a free market solution is not what George wants. George wants centralized control over individual choices. I will be discreet about his butt-ignorance on science and engineering.

The only rational response to both the impending end of the Oil Age and the menace of global warming is to redesign our cities, our farming and our lives.

I wonder who gets to do the "redesigning?" Especially of lives? Reminds me of Pol Pot's attempts to "redesign" civilization to a more rural form.

Interestingly, I have never seen a radical environmentalist present a solution to an environmental problem that did not involve drastic and total centralized control over individuals or even nations. Go ahead. Try and think of an exception.

It is worth remembering that when I was in college, we were supposed to have run out of oil (and a lot of other resources) by now. To be exact, thirty years ago, it was estimated that world reserves contained thirty years of oil.

In 1990, unexploited reserves of oil amounted to 900 billion barrels, 350 billion more than the total oil reserves of the 1970s. Remember Paul Ehrlich?

Things a government can usefully do to make sure that we keep the motors running:

- Don't attempt to shield consumers from price increases. This is how technological change happens. Do you think hybrids would be selling now if gas prices were still controlled at 40 cents a gallon?

- Remove legal and regulatory barriers to alternative power sources, including decentralized generation systems. And it's time we stopped being anal about nuclear power.

- Stay out of the way of the creative inventors and entrepreneurs.

- Drill here in America. Stop letting people who hate humanity and technology run our energy policy.

Try this article on the same subject.

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*Yes, dammit, he is one. Browse his web site for a while.