I think the real answer to our oil dependency is localizing. We need to start developing more civic communities, that offer walkable (more human scale) scenery. Check out James Howard Kunstler's book, "Geography of Nowhere". 'Mixed use zoning' will be a very important term in years to come as it becomes more obvious that building suburbs was one of the worst ideas man has yet to come up with. (newurbanism.org)

Oh yeah and how come most of the Average American citzens don't know that all plastics, pesticides, fertilizers, food products, packaging, distribution, roads, building construction , manufacturing.... are all dreived from petroleum.

Why wasnt I taught this in school?

Sincerely, Matthew Coyle http://www.oildependency.org

If I may be so bold as to plug an article I did at another website, in How to create a fossil-fuel free society" (requires free registration), I laid out a number of infrastructure systems/sectors that need to be localized, as well as sustainably woven into a continental framework: the transportation/energy networks, agriculture, and the least discussed, manufacturing, all based on a central city or set of cities which are walkable.