With recent gas price increases there are many clamoring about how our nation is running out of oil.  But as noted recently by the National Center for Policy Analysis, such pessimistic assumptions about dwindling oil supplies are nothing new. In 1855, an advertisement for Kier’s Rock Oil advised consumers to, quote, “hurry, before this wonderful product is depleted from Nature’s laboratory.” Indeed, seven oil shortage scares occurred before 1950.  Predictions of an oil famine also were rampant during the Arab Oil embargo of the 1970s, but in each of these cases, all of these scares were followed by gluts of cheap oil.  In actuality according to the National Center, reserves of oil have never been higher.  And when all is said and done and accounted for, experts predict we may actually have more than 500 years of steady oil supply.