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Why I don’t agree with James Kunstler about peak oil and the ‘end of suburbia’

The remarkably low fueling cost of the best current hybrids (like the Toyota Prius) and future plug-in hybrids are major reasons I don't worry as much about peak oil as some do.

James Kunstler, for instance, argues in his 2005 book The Long Emergency (see Rolling Stone excerpt here) that after oil production peaks, suburbia "will become untenable" and "we will have to say farewell to easy motoring." In Rolling Stone, Kunstler writes, "Suburbia will come to be regarded as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world." (No -- that distinction probably belongs to China's torrid love-affair with coal power.)

But suppose Kunstler is right about peak oil. Suppose oil hits $160 a barrel and gasoline goes to $5 dollars a gallon in, say, 2015. That price would still be lower than many Europeans pay today. You could just go out and buy the best hybrid and cut your fuel bill in half, back to current levels. Hardly the end of suburbia.

Umbra on solar holiday lights

Dear Umbra, As the holiday season approaches, I’m trying to figure out how to spread good cheer in home decorations while being sensitive to the environment. Years ago, my husband and I purchased strings of lights that we wrapped around the trunks of palm trees in our front yard. Now the wiser, I’d like to […]

Russia’s environmental movement rocked by serious mommy issues

You thought there was dissent inside the U.S. environmental movement? Welcome to Russia, where last summer a band of 20 protestors outside a nuclear reprocessing plant was attacked by masked thugs with bats and pipes, leaving one dead from a cracked skull. One of the attackers turned out to be Pavel Rikhvanova, the 19-year-old son […]

New partnership hopes to jumpstart global carbon market

A whole slew of countries and states have signed on to a new International Carbon Action Partnership, with a goal of sharing knowledge about and standardizing best practices for what they hope will become a global cap-and-trade system. Participants include members of the Western Climate Initiative and Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, as well as various […]

U.S. states face water shortages

The catastrophic California wildfires got all the press, but it’s worth paying attention to an equally intimidating but slower-moving threat: water shortages. From Georgia to Massachusetts, Florida to New York, the Great Lakes to the West, U.S. states are getting thirstier. In fact, the government predicts that at least 36 states will face challenges from […]

A plea for higher food consciousness from My Name Is Earl

Here’s a new anthem for all the veggies and vegans out there. It’s from My Name Is Earl, a couple weeks ago. Darnell is a gentle soul who’s in witness protection; his cover requires him to cook at the Crab Shack and … kill crabs.

U.S. investors make a killing off of Chinese coal

China’s vast coal industry: Where would we be without it? Cheap Chinese coal keeps consumer-goods prices low, allowing us to consume like mad even as crude-oil prices skyrocket. It’s also returning handsome profits to U.S. investors. Take it away, Associated Press: As China’s appetite for coal is booming, American investors and businesses are cashing in. […]

In times of crisis, we get what we pay for

A week of intense wildfires in southern California displaced the news from front pages, but the drought in the southeastern states rages on, despite a few welcome but too-brief rain events. As sources of drinking water slowly exhaust themselves, under pressure from growing demand and lagging supply, one wonders why governments in the region don’t […]

A recap of our week on the river

Huckleberry Wroth and I survived our travels down the Mississippi last week, and we’ve now returned to our respective coasts to reflect on everything we learned. I must say, visiting three cities in seven days is no lazy float down the river — we covered a lot of ground. Here’s a recap: In Dubuque, we: […]

We need a grid as smart as our bombs

So much talk about new energy supplies ignores the wisdom we supposedly learned in the '70s about "negawatts" being the most efficient, effective, and environmentally friendly source of power around.

It's good to see that we might finally make some progress in this direction, learning to shave demand peaks and save a bundle (and open the way for integrating more renewables into the grid):