> [WS:] Actually, the "unconventional" oil reserves are much larger than
> a conventional ones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum
> At $100+ per barrel for WTI (or $115+ for Brent) the prospect of
> extracting these unconventional resources looks 'economical." So from
> that standpoint, the oil reserves are not likely to "peak" any time
> soon.
>
> Otoh, extracting "unconventional" oil is a far dirtier than the
> conventional one - so the prospect of trashing the planet is far
> greater. However, that has never been a consideration if the money
> is to be made or if the Americans will have to move their lazy asses
> out of their cars.
>
> Wojtek
Worthwhile, until the end. The voluntarism of laziness is sociologically and politically problematic. Car culture, at this point, is utterly and completely embedded in the built environment of the US just as mass transit was built out of it and bike/walking routes were never built in.
Furthermore, the laziness argument suggests that, somehow, all those folks taking mass transit around the world are less lazy. Living in and around DC you are surely aware that where there is good mass transit in the US people almost everywhere use it very intensively... often to the point of degrading the experience if not the public resource itself. And yet neither urban or regional development plans usually include aggressive expansion of mass transit through existing development or as a component of urban renewal or new development. Last, I know any number of people who use their cars all the time and work out, whether running or biking on the roads or on hills or in gyms, pools, fields or court complexes (public or private) like fiends - they work hard and play hard, its not about laziness its about regional growth machines and national power relations.