A very good point, and one that's very difficult to argue with. But (there's always a "but" isn't there?) government isn't run by a cabal of
meddling commisars, it responds primarily to public demands and corporate influence, especially corporate influence.

The best way to solve the transport crisis is for the market to make our present policies untenable by making them too expensive to continue. But this only works when the availability of the resouce (oil) determines its cost, and when availability is determined by the cost of production.
With oil, the cost of production and distribution is negligible and the premium paid to the owners is politically influenced and artificially high. To make things worse, the present availability of the resource has no connection with the total amount available for future use. It could run out at any time and with little warning. The true extent of reserves is unknown, and their size is routinely exaggerated by the producers and underestimated by conservationists. This is why I am very suspicious of developing domestic oil fields, I don't think there's enough there to make a long term difference, and it will not be profitable to the producers to use it to buy us time in the short term. They will just put domestic oil in the same market as foreign crude and sell it as profitably, and quickly, as possible. It's like eating the seed corn, to slightly abuse a metaphor, corn is renewable..

The pattern is visible in fisheries. As stocks run low, bigger and more efficient vessels go out further and further to make larger catches until one day, the population collapses. No matter how much you invest in your boats after that, the harvest just stops.

I have little direct evidence, but my instincts tell me we have already reached peak oil production relative to demand and that we can look forward to rising prices no matter what we do. Even if we invaded the middle east and took over the fields and sold the oil at the cost of production plus a small profit, the cost would continue to rise as demand comes on line. Severe economic dislocation would begin within a decade, and by 2030 (my best guess) world economic output will be cut in half and massive unrest will break out.

I really don't know how to get out of this mess.