The vast majority of Western technological civilization was developed without being shepherded into existence by mandates from the state. I have more confidence in the average person, I guess, to make decisions for themselves that will be the right ones for them.

If the price of fossil fuels goes higher, alternatives will become more attractive, and as with many other technologies, as more people buy, prices of the technologies will come down. And it will happen in due time. The absolute worst thing would be for the government to either mandate selected technologies, removing choice and serendipity, or to subsidize energy prices to keep them artificially low.

I know how hard it is to keep from grabbing the steering wheel away from the market. Like the cycles of nature in a rain forest, it seems impossible to a lot of people that something that isn't controlled by a central intelligence can be stable and workable.

We're not going to run out of oil tomorrow. Relax. Fifty years from now this controversy will sound like concerned scientists of a previous century who wondered what the heck we'd burn in lamps when the whale oil ran out.

Where people can help out is to spread the word about alternatives that can be found now, and support a legal environment that allows for a maximum number of solutions.

- Create rational and reasonable regulations on nuclear power, and get back into the business. The current regulations are largely intended to destroy the industry, not create safe nuclear power.

- Make sure that regulations on power companies and other such entities allow alternative technologies to mesh into existing systems. Out here in California it took a lot of doing to give solar panel owners the ability to hook their systems into the grid.

- The government's rule of thumb should be: when in doubt, stay out of the way.

- And let's all recognize that controversies like drilling in Alaska are a lot more about politics than they are about the environment. Let's get rational about this.