Yes, it's Old Testament moralizing - you will suffer mightily for your wanton, profligate ways. While his book certainly has some good points, his online essays show him to be a one-trick pony, as he really just says the same thing over and over in different ways.
I think there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful. There are huge amounts of r&d being done now into clean energy and transportation.
The CEO of GM just said peak oil is now and assumes the EV will be the vehicle of the future. There are serious plans to create fuel cell trains<http://polizeros.com/2008/01/14/fuel-cell-trains-coming-to-us/>that run on waste hydrogen or are powered by hydrogen created from wind power. Scientific American just did a huge spread on how solar in the desert areas of the southwest could power much of the country. The Google Foundation plans to invest hundreds of millions a year into creating renewable energy sources that are cheaper than coal.
Kunstler sort of mentions all this, but he really seems to enjoy lecturing us about how we're screwed and the End is Nigh. Ah, no.
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Bob Morris polizeros.com