LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF ATLAS SHRUGGED

Ayn Rand kept a "Horror File" of current news reports validating the worst aspects of her fictional universe in Atlas Shrugged. She said that she did that because often, in casual discussions at social occasions, someone would assert, "No one really believes those things!" or "No really says that." Well, yes, someone does and not just a random person but someone with social capital and personal status. 

Personally, I believe that from both an engineering standpoint and a market perspective, newer energy sources will eclipse oil and coal just as they outshone hardwood and charcoal. At the same time, I also believe in spontaneous order very well enucniated in Leonard E. Reed's essay, "I, Pencil" (Foundation for Economic Education here). 

Furthermore shutting off the oil that supplies you with heat and light and transportation will not deliver to me a solar-powered car, or a plasma power plant for my home.

More to the point, I believe that the people who oppose the production and delivery of oil today do not care if you have heat, light, and transportation (or food). They have them. So, they are satisified. And they have the leisure time to engage in an anti-industrial revolution. 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Jerry Emanuelson's Algebraic Proof of Ricardo's Law of Association

What is Legal Tender?

Money is Speech

Debt: The Seed of Civilization