Before The Oil Runs Out: How Will This Era End?

"The warnings keep piling up. Author Paul Roberts cautions his readers about "The End of Oil." National Geographic's cover story last month examined how the world might survive "After Oil." The Economist magazine asks, "Is the age of oil drawing to a close?"

...But is the world really running out of oil? The short answer is no. Earth is swimming in the stuff. What's changed is that the era of cheap oil - a period that has lasted 150 years - is showing its age. Only a dramatic breakthrough - either in technology or consumption patterns - can forestall its conclusion in a decade or two.

...When it finally comes, the end of cheap petroleum would be felt nowhere more keenly than in America, a nation built on low-cost, plentiful energy, and cheap oil in particular. Long, leisurely Sunday drives and Saturday night cruising down Main Street in hot rods with 25-cent-a-gallon gasoline were traditions fused into the American psyche in the era after World War II. Today's suburban American lifestyle - built around long commutes to work and large, energy-hungry houses - assumes that low-cost fuel will be available indefinitely."