but it's pretty clear where the debate -- or at least an agenda -- has returned, if subtly.

We are at a policy crossroads (again), as readers may have noticed. One candidate has made clear he opposes further "drilling" at home (what the Teamsters claim he told them in private notwithstanding). He just reaffirmed that it's time to restrict imported oil, too.

Now, unless you're talking about several-hundred-miles-per-gallon CAFE, I'm not sure what's going to run those engines, and even then there's only so much growing on the trees.

I seem to recall a phrase, that when openly discussed went over not too well, something about "...eliminate the internal combustion engine...", and through fiat and not the market.

So, it remains as true as ever that when we exit the fossil fuel age it will not be for want of fossil fuels. It should be because of innvation, however, not (further) artifical scarcity either of supply or demand. Let us hope the next 12 weeks openly revive debate over the wisdom of articifically, and expensively, forcing ourselves out of our most abundant reliable energy sources.