I've had a lot of fun reading Esquire magazine's December 2005 Best and Brightest issue. The one person I'll focus on now is Amy Myers Jaffee who is the director of the Energy Forum at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Here are her Seven Ways to Fix the Oil Crisis:
1. Build a safety net: just in time delivery when it is oil is catastrophic when there is a natural disaster
2. Double (auto) fuel efficiency.
3. Tax gas--by dollars not cents: this has allowed the Europeans to become more efficient, and kept demand stable.
4. Work with China: instead of competing with them for energy, work together to lower costs, create new technologies.
5. Drill more. Regulate more. Drill in more areas (costal), give the EPA more authority to adequately regulate oil companies.
6. Open foreign energy markets: no more state energy monopolies.
7. Commit to solar energy: virtually no waste stream, carbon or radioactive. Solar needs to be at the 3 cents/killowat hour to become competitive; it's currently 20 to 30 cents.