America’s Never-Ending Oil Consumption
Oil is great.<p>From an engineering perspective it is energy dense and relatively stable and easy-to-use. I can put a small amount of it in my pickup truck and drive up the side of a mountain. A pilot can fly to the other side of the world in a few hours time with a plane powered by the stuff. A few hundred years ago that level of mobility and conevnience would have been seen as a magic power - the domain of witches and demons.<p>I don&#x27;t think Americans are addicted to oil. We are addicts of the capability, the freedom, if you will, that oil enables. In the short term limits on oil limit our ability to do the things we want, many of which require oil to enable. When an alternative technology comes along which gives us the same capability and is cleaner and (most importantly) cheaper, we will gladly move on from oil.<p>I personally would even support a tax on oil (and thus marginally reduce my freedom) in order to invest in whatever is next and facilitate the change before we permanently impair the earth. Alas my fellow countrymen do not have it in their hearts to tax themselves for this purpose.