“Al Gore makes bold proposal,” brag the headlines. What’s so bold about his proposal? Essentially, he’s saying: “Oil is too expensive. It’s also–I claim–dangerous. Therefore, we should find a better source of fuel. And to make sure it happens, we’re going to require it by law, in ten years.” This would be like someone, back in the days of the horse and buggy, declaring that, “There should be faster and more efficient forms of transportation that don’t smell and pollute the streets like horse manure does; and, by George, to make sure that this happens, I’m going to propose a law that it all be in place no later than 1905!”
Anyone who said this back then would have been treated as insane. Anyone who says essentially the same thing today is given a Nobel prize and becomes a billionaire, permitted to break all the rules of conservation that he intends to impose on the rest of us. Yes, our leaders are insane.