I wouldnt' rush to judgment and claim the opposite, forever, but the long-term _trend_ with oil (and gas) is obvious. (For years we've been projected to likely triple our imports within two decades or so.)

Forced conservation is wrong, conservation alone will never solve the problems we have, alternatives to what we have now (mainly oil for transportation fuels) are not at hand nor soon at hand, and nobody needs to feel guilty or angry about how to this day, people are complaining and curtailing some driving but so far still largely driving the same vehicles they have been driving, in the same manner (here in Detroit, too fast, too rapidly accelerating, and consuming excess fuel unnecessarily as well as driving poorly). The higher fuel prices will largely cause budget changes elsewhere than with (largely essential) driving.

Some have changed already. My brother gloats over his fuel-sipper he bought (tailor made for idling and stop-and-go traffic minimum-fuel use and getting 45 mpg on the highway). A colleague was jealous that I used to own a Vespa (before it was hip; I had a P200E in Seattle and Phoenix) and was going to get a bike; I told him if just in town and rarely or not on the freeway, then get a 250 (a 400 will do more and still be on the small, thifty side by modern standards). But don't feel smug, superior, or believe that this is what you and everyone must do out of fake guilt or other silliness.

As for GM, Ford, Chrysler — the legacy costs _are_ killing them; denial does no good. With their product line, they were losing things beginning where it matters the most, in California, to the foreign makers back in the 1980s. That set the way for how things are nation-wide now (varying in extent but stilll the same pattern).

Where were the US-made rotary-engine hatchback sports cars when I bought my RX-7 in 1986? Would any that they made last 400,000 miles as mind did?

Interesting take, and one that makes me chuckle when I think of GM. I remember them trying to blame their losses on healthcare costs, which run somewhere between 2-3% of their budget instead of the many other reasons they are not selling well.

Just 2 weeks ago I caught the final game in the series of the Lakers and the Jazz. Every single commerical break there was a GM ad running, and each one was for an SUV of one sort or another. Not a single small car, as if gas was still going for $1.50/gallon. I've come to the conclusion, espeically after seeing “Who killed the electric car”, that the guys that run GM are f&*king morons. They deserve to get their asses handed to them by Toyota.

I think you're on the right track with a lot of your comments here. Artificially high energy prices help nobody, but it's naive to think we have a free market. There are so many regulations and subsidies (ethanol anyone?) that government does play a part whether some people like to admit it or not.

Our lack of a coherent energy policy is easily one of the biggest threats, but nobody seems to care. Our whole way of life is built on cheap energy, and that's a thing of the past. Even coal is rising quickly. For all the whining about price gouging, the world markets have changed and we are no longer the only one bidding in world markets. China, India, and other developing countries have absorbed excess capacity and we are approaching peak oil.

I doubt cheap energy is ever going to be an “issue” again.