What makes the oncoming oil shortages really scary is that neither the Democrats nor Republicans, neither the Left nor the Right, are intellectually equipped (paradigm-wise) to react correctly.
The Right will either dismiss the first signs of the crisis as invented by liberals, or caused by environmentalists who have stupidly denied us access to the Ghawar-sized pools of oil allegedly buried under the Rockies, the California coast, and the north slope of Alaska.
The Right's prescription: de-regulation, get those tree-huggers out of the way, drill more holes in the ground, and pretend oil shale is light sweet crude.
The Left will blame it on corporate greed, and oil companies in particular. If only we taxed oil and distributed wealth more fairly, then the crisis would go away because people could afford oil. Oh, and let's all drive hybrids.
The Left's prescription: redistribute the wealth, tax Big Oil, and tell everyone to turn out the lights when they're done.
The problem is neither of these approaches work. The problem isn't politics, it's geology. Cheap oil is running out. There's no economic or technical fix for oil depletion. When the cheap oil's gone, it's gone. Screaming about it or pointing fingers won't put more oil in the ground.
What's needed is a frank acknowledgment of the problem, strong conservation, and a crash R&D program into alternative energy.
