Lawrence J. Kramer

How $30/Barrel Oil Could Save the World

The only solution to the high price of oil is to stop using it by imposing an annually increasing tax on its use. That will encourage alternatives and reduce demand. And even if it doesn't lower the price, what matters to us is the cost of energy, not the cost of oil, so if we've moved to alternative fuels, the price of oil won't matter as much.

Unfortunately, the Chinese and Indians will have to reduce their oil consumption, too, if there is to be real impact on the flow of cash to bad actors. The Chinese, at least, for all their efforts to acquire oil, are moving forward on alternative energy as well. But it's such a big country with so many people emerging from poverty, that it's hard to say that the oil export business will ever wane.