Consider an analogy which Mr. Leonard seem to have absolutely no consciousness of.

Ten years ago, flat-panel TV's were barely available and very expensive. Now, even large sets have broken the $1000 barrier, and they will surely go lower after the transition to all-digital television. Even if digital broadcasting hadn't been mandated by the government, it will probably be impossible to buy a cathode-ray TV set in a few years. Best Buy has already stopped carrying them.

That is the analogy to keep in mind when considering oil and drilling. Like early flat-panel TVs, we can already see oil's replacement technology on the horizon: Honda just started leasing the first fuel-cell cars a couple of days ago. Expensive now, of course, like the first flat-panel TV's; but the technology is understood and will surely become much cheaper over the ten or twenty years. So is the energy source; hydrogen is already not that much more expensive than gasoline, and the energy needed to produce it can be easily derived from solar or wind. Again, a little expensive now, but probably not in the long run.

So, let's complete the analogy: did the government need to forbid or restrict the manufacture of cathode-ray TVs to launch the transition to flat panel? Was there some reason why we needed to limit the sale of cathode-ray sets at Wal-Mart?

No. In a few years, they won't be able to give 'em away, and no one will be manufacturing them, either. What Mr. Leonard seems absolutely unable to conceive of is that the same thing is going to happen to oil as a transportation fuel. Oil isn't a necessity; it's a transitional energy supply, which only needs to get us through the next two or three decades. Then, we'll be done with it, except for industrial uses (which there will still be plenty for.) Meanwhile, what's the point of restricting supply? Like cheap cathode-ray TVs for the second bedroom, let's make the most of what's available during the transitional period! Drill and drill, make it available to everyone as cheaply as possible, just like cathode-ray sets at Wal-Mart. This is not just blindly kicking the can down the road; it's making the most of old technology while it's still around. In the twinkling of an historical eye, it will soon be just a memory.

This is just not a "problem" that the government needs to "manage."