Reader D.G. (a college economics professor) writes in on this post:

Saw your post on the Forbes piece that advocates postponing off-shore drilling and “waiting for higher prices and better technologies.”
I think your point on the macroeconomic effects of higher future oil prices is astute, but I think the author misses a more fundamental economic implication of his suggestion — he seems to think that incentives will remain constant; higher prices will drive greater exploration which will probably require even more sophisticated technology as these sources will no doubt be more difficult to access. What then, wait for further technological advances? And, as you point out, what economic misery will we have to suffer until that technology develops?
I also find it ironic that everyone seems to agree that alternative energy sources cannot possibly meet our energy needs at this point in time. The technology is simply not there right now — yet we must rush headlong into these adventures regardless of the cost (granted, I don’t know if the author advocates this). How about exploiting the oil resources that we know exist and that we can currently extract — even with the risks posed — until these alternatives become technologically viable? In the end, we will put more alternative energy sources online at a much lower cost, even accounting for the externalities of fossil fuels used in the meantime.