despite these concerns the depletion of nonrenewable resources such as fossil fuels and uranium should not be a major issue of consideration in policy making as commodities with high private and little additional social value oil coal gas and uranium are traded on large and liquid international markets where information about longterm scarcity is widely known and would be priced in immediately if it ever became a genuine cause for concern from a policymaking point of view the best response to resource depletion concerns is to ensure that existing markets remain as open and competitive as possible and that information about resource availability is shared widely