Take steps now to fix policy goofs of the 1980s

This paper reports that industry leaders are wary of the stability of free world oil markets. With production at capacity levels it is probable that growing future demand, coupled with the decline of older producing oil fields, will offset expected new output, plus that restored from the war-damaged fields of Iraq and Kuwait. In such a case, very little surplus production capacity will remain, so the world market could be in a precarious balance. And yet, given a little luck. U.S. energy consumers could get by one more year running on empty. However, we are getting close to the edge of an unprecedented energy crisis, one that could result from any number of combinations of world events, with little possibility of relief, for we have already burned our seed corn. Nothing similar to Prudhoe Bay, the North Sea or other giant discoveries is poised to come to our rescue, as occurred in the crisis of the 1970s