[Hoot Gibson]

This country has hundreds of years of coal, gas, and oil shale reserves remaining. Think of the technological advances that have been made in the past 110 years, thanks in large part to the cheap energy that fossil fuels have provided.

I would rather rely on future advances in technology replacing fossil fuels rather than strictly conserving our resources, lowering our standard of living, and delaying or preventing the arrival of future technological breakthroughs.

The development of great civilizations has coincided with the effective harnessing of affordable energy and that will always be the case. Fossil fuels are cheap and they should be utilized sooner rather than later. As they become more scarce, prices will rise and the market will stimulate the development of cheaper alternatives. Or not.

Either way, it really makes no difference to me if fossil fuels become prohibitively expensive in 200 years or 1,000 years. Either period is (hopefully) a mere blink of an eye in terms of mankind's existence on Earth. Our descendants will either find new sources of affordable energy or they will revert to an agrarian society that once again relies on horses for horsepower.

As for the rest of your post, I think that you need to do some research. A typical oil company pays three times or more in state, federal, sales, property taxes, etc. than it makes in profits. The gouging that is going on is being done by government not by the oil companies. Oil companies have historically posted profit margins below 10 percent, even when oil prices have been high.

As for "subsidies," can you post some details about where taxpayer dollars have been transferred from taxpayers (and our Chinese creditors) to a single oil company?