I discussed Peak Oil here a few days ago. I talked to my sister last night and for the first time we agreed on most issues. She retired from a major oil company 2 years ago as a world famous up stream geologist. She agreed that the Alberta Tar Sands proved to be an economic disaster and will probably be entirely shut down within a year or two. She also agreed we have probably reached peak fracking. Oil from “alternative sources” is simply too expensive and non oil alternatives will become economically viable. BMW has announced it will be all electric or hybrid by 2020. They already have several EVs as part of their fleet. VW is now spending much of their R&D on EV research and I would guess that American companies are doing the same. Electric vehicles have some infrastructure problems . The infrastructure for ICE vehicles was supplied by the oil companies. There is little incentive for power companies to create an EV infrastructure. Our local electricity utility has set up a few charging stations but it has primarily been a PR exercise and not sufficient for a large EV fleet.
Another promising possibility for personal transportation is hydrogen fuel cells. Progress is being made on producing hydrogen from water more economically. These would be small facilities that could produce hydrogen on demand at existing service stations eliminating at least some of the infrastructure problems. These small facilities could be powered by wind or solar.
And then of course there is global warming caused by high concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere. The Republican Party in the US is the only political party in the world that still denies climate change. In part this is because of their dependence on money from the fossil fuel industry but just if not more important is a Republican base that rejects science and all things 21st century. They still believe the Bible is the inspired word of God in spite of the evidence is was written by Roman politicians who were trying to create a state religion that would let them control the population. It worked until the enlightenment in Europe but somehow the enlightenment passed much of the US by. The irony of course is the areas in the deep south that are the greatest climate deniers will be the first impacted by climate change caused rising sea levels. The southern part of Florida is already experiencing this.