Harvard economist Morris Adelman , famous for saying that we will never run out of oil, died last month. What followed the announcement of his death was a predictable set of encomiums like this one from defenders of the oil industry extolling Adelman’s infinite wisdom. Some (including my father, it seems) were so caught up in the odd celebratory mood–one that resurfaces every time people contemplate just how much stuff there is in the universe–that Adelman’s rather narrow and almost meaningless dictum was being offered as the basis for a complete energy policy. (And, never mind that that energy policy makes absolutely no mention of climate change.) All of this makes sense only if you keep yourself from […]