Sometimes you have to have things thrown in your face and your open actions blocked before you will realize things have changed. Unfortunately , it would seem that in this country(US) that is the way the majority of the population changes their minds. So it is no real surprise that almost 30 years (October 17, 1973) after the first warning signs of the dangers of US dependence on foreign oil supplies. That the brutal edge of commodity curves are beginning to force people in the US to reconsider the basis of our modern economy. And that basis has never been our labor force, which has always been relatively small compared to some other countries; it has never really been our natural resources, which while still abundant are something we mostly consume for ourselves; it hasn't even been our educated workforce, which while average has always been second or worse to other educated workforces in the world. No, that basis has been the high availability of domestic cheap energy sources. It is that cheap and plentiful energy that let the US win two world wars, it is that cheap and plentiful energy that let the US become and industrial giant in the last century, and it is that cheap and plentiful energy that raised the American standard of living to average levels it has never been at before, ever. Read more...