I would like to 'just stop oil' as much as the next person, but I feel that it is a harder task than most people care to admit. Oil is a massive part of the economy so reducing use of it by placing a tax on it, would slow the economy down. It'd be essentially asking people to either lose their jobs or reducing the standard of living. Could people take a 20% pay cut? Most hardline environmentalists could reduce their standard of living, but at some stage their lowered standard of living and resentment would probably just turn into voting out the government.
The government could probably do it if they could replace oil with something of equal value to the economy, for example electric cars, and pay the same for the electricity. You're still burning coal or other fuels though. Why aren't governments so excited about renewable energies and its all a bunch of lip service? Its free and doesn't stimulate the economy.
Oil is basically an economist's wet dream, digging up an endless amount of gold, and when you think about it, what industry uses raw materials in a totally renewable way. If you buy a chair, you've chopped a tree down or you've burnt some hydrocarbons to make plastic. All of our tech products use materials mined from the earth. Even eating meat you're constantly slaughtering animals, we don't feel anything because its all been sanitized by supermarkets.
With all that said - I think the best way forward is for individuals to wean themselves off non renewable energy sources, use cars less, add a solar panel if the cost is worth it etc. I think there is individual incentive to do it if money can be saved. The government isn't going to do it, because they don't have the incentive.
