Our consumer-based economy is driven by readily-available, reliable energy-- choke that, and we'll be back to using one rotary dial phone in the dining room and driving one car per family-- probably a Hudson Hornet...
We need to
1) end the nonsensical ban on offshore drilling off California and Florida
2) build a lot of next-generation nuclear power plants, not just for electricity, but for any process requiring heat, power, or steam
3) end Jimmy Carter's idiot ban on recycling nuclear waste, and reprocess the stuff rather than fighting over where to bury it
4) use the 300-500 years worth of coal we have on our own land, using the new clean-coal technology
5) and finally, there's nothing wrong with conservation- but you can't conserve your way out of a shortage- we need to get serious about this before we get strangled by a bunch of petty thieves and dictators who don't like us much.
My tongue-in-cheek collection of energy-related links:
Sticker Shock-$3 a gallon gas? Click the picture:
And note well-- the first reply to this post ( when gas was less than $1.50 a gallon ) was derisive... who's laughing now?