How we use land drives the demand for oil; better land use = less oil use

On a Friday where anyone can bring up a live video stream on their computer of oil still pouring from a broken well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps you, like a lot of Americans, feel a little powerless about it and aren’t sure what we can really do to prevent such a disaster in the future. While certainly not responsible for the spill itself, that well and thousands of others are there because we need quite a lot of oil every day.

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Enhancing the Pickens Plan with some old-fashioned walkability

You may have seen oilman T. Boone Pickens around lately. If not, then you haven’t turned on your television, radio, or opened a newspaper in the last few weeks. He’s been touting his new Pickens Plan nonstop to nearly any outlet that will listen, taking out full-page ads in newspapers from coast to coast and … Continued

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Stranded: Why don't we have better alternatives?

I’m back from a weeklong vacation, so you probably already saw Paul Krugman’s wonderful column in the New York Times last week that was subsequently posted and emailed all over the place, but it’s worth posting for posterity. In “Stranded in Suburbia,” Krugman muses on the differences in how high gas prices are devastating our … Continued

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James Kunstler on Stephen Colbert

Colbert: “I have no oil dilemma. I go to the gas station, I pay money, they put gas in my car. What’s the dilemma?” Kunstler: “You’re probably one of these people who thinks that the world has a creamy nougat center of oil, but it doesn’t.” Video from Comedy Central.

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