The forces of supply and demand in a free market economy will result in increased supplies and lower consumer prices for energy resources in the United States. This thesis is examined in light of post-World War II trends in oil and gas resources. A review of these trends shows the relationships between market price and supply of oil and gas, and verifies the importance of profits in the economic cycle of energy development.

One of the main points considered in this analysis is the effect of government regulation. Government price ceilings and incentive prices have encouraged both excess consumption and inefficient production of oil and gas resources.

In the short-term, we are vulnerable to world energy disruptions. However, domestic reserves of oil and gas remaining to be discovered in the United States are ample to carry our nation into the next century without excessive dependence on unstable foreign sources of supply. Free-market forces will not only allow the efficient development of those reserves, but will also bring forth supplies of substitutes for oil and gas, such as coal and nuclear fuels, as prices and costs warrant.