Saudi Arabia would cause real problems if supply is disrupted, but there have been no significant demonstrations …as yet. The royal family is wealthy enough to pump cash into social programs to help extinguish unrest. Peak oil is a problem waiting to happen, and you hear a lot about substitutes, but no radical shifts in the way we do things. Europe absorbs a much higher $ per gallon of gas, so why can’t the US consumer? One problem is that infrastructure in the US is built around the car. High speed trains must come, and public transportation dramatically improved. The auto industry must wake up and dump the truck, and over-sized sedan. Build cities up, not out. Find alternatives for all those products that include oil.
