I've just been in Europe and Portland, which supposedly is as good as it gets in the US as far cities its size in accommodating sustainable transportation and land use prices.

Well, even Portland has a long ways to go. European cities are far nicer to visit and I suspect to live in due to the fact that they are not infested with automobiles like American cities. This is a great opportunity for the US to get its act together and catch up with the rest of the world. Hopefully the US will not squander its resources in vain attempts to extend the age of the automobile. It would not be worth it.

GM Volts get 150 mpg.

If oil companies want to survive they have to cut production to keep the price alive.

Otherwise we'd be paying 40 cents a gallon ($2.00/5) under the old price.

If we do get plugin hybrids (or the water car) then even if gas goes up to $10.00 a gallon, it's still the same cost to go the same number of miles.

"Now it is primarily one sector of the economy, transportation, that is an oil monoculture..."

I sure do wish this were the case, since transportation is a very easy nut to crack; the number one reason people don't ride bikes is safety, which is a problem which is solved when people abandon their fossil-fool powered wheelchairs. However, we grow our food in fossil-fuel derived fertilizers. Further, our soils aren't going to return to healthy for quite some time. A few years ago I looked up close and personal at the soils of the Sacramento Valley. The farms I looked at once had thirty feet of healthy, living soil. They are now covered in dead moondust. The only way to grow anything is with timely and extensive chemical additions.
Unfortunately, it may take us much longer to relearn how to feed our people than it will take us to relearn how to move them around in a world of expensive oil.

"Well, even Portland has a long ways to go. European cities are far nicer to visit and I suspect to live in due to the fact that they are not infested with automobiles like American cities."

I lived in Germany for 16 years. German traffic DWARFS American traffic. Cities are clogged with cars, you can't find a space to park...... it's burtal. Every German highway has a "stau" (traffic jam) every day. Many are 15, 20 miles long or longer. German traffic reports report Stau after Stau every hour. I all but gave up highway driving there - it was WAY to painful - back in the 90s.

European cities have beautiful architecture, but that's where their beauty begins and ends.

Victory in Pattani