Hi Odin,
I think the Government is working on this important issue, and while I will agree with you that they're doing this a little late and a little too lack luster in effort, but I will disagree with you about the Government needing to get out of the picture, because in my opinion one of the most important jobs of any Government is the management of its natural resources.
I know that it may seem like the Government is not doing a very good job with the situation we're in, but I would like to point out that we may not have the scope of the "Big Picture," and there may be tactical reasons for our Government and just about every other Western Government for allowing its citizens to become addicted to Middle Eastern Oil. I think that reason is to use up all of their oil and pay those people what prices they ask for within reason so if a war does occur it will be us with most of the remaining oil reserves to draw upon.
Here in the United States we still have lots of oil which we have not yet drilled for, both on land and off shore and the reasons for our not drilling in these regions is because of the price of drilling in those regions being too high for a profit, and I think for tactical purposes as well because with recent technical breakthroughs the predicted cost of drilling in these areas should drop drastically. That takes care of the economic and tactical reasons for our current energy situation in my opinion but it does not address the environmental impact our current energy policies have, and for that I haven’t an answer, but I think the Government is aware of a need for change and is doing something about it. I just hope they are quick to coming to a solution, but I am doubtful.
