To clarify, I'm all for fossil fuel regulation. The fossil fuel industry is different from most in that it has huge externalities, and those can only be controlled via regulation (as explained by Tragedy of the Commons). However, what I'm saying is that personal responsibility is still important. In fact, in a democracy it's basically all that matters. Whether you vote for public policy or you vote with your wallet, both have the power to affect change.

Changing the system and rerouting the paths and forcing everybody to follow, sounds nice in theory. And in this case I do agree that some regulation is necessary. However changing the system can end up enormously good and also enormously bad. It has both incredible power and risk. The problem is that nobody agrees on how to change it. Every few years the group in power changes, and reverses the policies created by the opposing group. I am not confident that this is as efficient as you say it is.

What I don't like about resorting to regulation, is that it's all or nothing. The policy passes or it doesn't. The free market is much more flexible. If 20% of people vote with their wallet, that wouldn't have been enough to get a policy to pass, but it sure is enough to get an industry to re-think their strategy and try to re-capture that 20%.