I hate to disagree but the free market is often a great guide to tell us how much we need of something. The USSR tried telling industries how much to produce each year and we can agree that didn’t turn out well.
Of course oil is a problem but a tax or cap and trade system would make more sense to address it.
In economics there is a wide consensus that the free market is a lousy guide when it comes to incorporating externalities like accelerating climate change causing millions of unnecessary deaths vs perceived need to drive around in gas guzzlers.
Taxes and cap-and-trade systems are indeed the mechanisms of how current international agreements try to attempt CO2 emissions, they're a fine way to implement it.
It was my understanding that by driving around in a gas guzzler, I am precipitating human extinction, bringing forward the long-awaited day when the ecology of Earth no longer includes humans, which will be “better”.
I figured that would be the response, and the current price drops proves that the be wrong as the it is not just falling demand that is causing the price collapse, not that started long before COVID, it is a price war between 2 (of many) large suppliers,
This idea that OPEC controls everything in oil is simply false
Of course oil is a problem but a tax or cap and trade system would make more sense to address it.