The oil shale on the western slope of the Rockies and the tar sands in Canada hold many times the energy potential of all the oil in the Middle East. There's enough there to power our civilization for centuries to come. But, there's a slight problem. It seems that extracting the oil from shale and tar sands is quite expensive. And, when oil falls much below $60 per barrel then alternative oil just can't compete on price with the black stuff imported from hostile Gulf states.
There is a simple, but somewhat painful solution. Stabilize the price of conventional oil at an artificially high plateau. Make certain that imported and domestic oil never falls below $100 per barrel. How? Place an escalating tariff on imported oil. Start at, say, $5 per barrel and increase it gradually to $50 per barrel . . . or even more. In fact, a goal of a $100 per barrel tariff might be desirable. With oil stabilized in the range of $150 - $200 per barrel (net), gas would retail somewhere between $8 and $10 per gallon. Good!
Very expensive energy would force conservation. It would make solar power competitive and hybrid autos would pay for themselves within a matter of a couple of years. There would be a boom in domestic energy production. More jobs! Public transit in metropolitan areas would improve drastically, helped along by federal subsidies paid for by the imported oil tariff. In fact, the tariff would, in relatively short order, reduce the budget deficit down to manageable levels.
Most people would, without being compelled to by law, drive at 55 (or less!) to save gas. They wouldn't be able to afford to do otherwise. It would likewise make good economic sense to move closer to the workplace, to eliminate an expensive commute. This would help revitalize the inner cities and fuel a new real estate boom.
Sacrifices would, of course, become necessary. Leisure driving in one's own car would be a pastime only for the rich. No one else could afford it. Delivery charges for merchandise would go up by a factor of three. So, it would make more sense for people to shop locally and this would give a boost to stores and businesses close to home. Certainly, we would need to adapt.
What are the odds that the politicians in Washington would approve a tariff on oil imports? Pretty low, maybe nonexistent. Americans have a love affair with their cars and they would rather fund terrorists through the gas pump than change their habits . . . even if that means only postponing the inevitable energy crunch. Pain in the indefinite future is much easier to tolerate than pain today. So, my fellow Americans, eat, drink and be merry . . . for tomorrow you're bankrupt.