For the people who are now standing around and saying "If we only had 20 years - we'd be ready for Peak Oil", remember that many years ago a man who knew what it took to make Energy was in the White House - Jimmy Carter. The idea of wind, solar and other renewables for energy generation to blunt the eventual pain of peak oil was happening 20 years ago.
I went looking on a lark - to see if there was a book that discussed some of the inner workings of the Carter Administration WRT Energy Policy: Link

And let us not forget, Jimmy Carter was also a nuclear power engineer, via his service in the Navy.

Go back and read the speech that has come to be known as the "malaise speech." Prescient. And on-target.

"Former president Jimmy Carter recently issued a gutsy call on the U.S. government to pull out of Iraq as soon as possible. While a distinct minority in Congress has voiced this sentiment, it's refreshing to hear an ex-president say what almost no one else in the political mainstream dares say. Even many in the "antiwar" movement, to say nothing of the leadership of his party, don't see Carter's call for withdrawal as a reasonable option. "
Antiwar.com

"A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order"
This book is a gripping account of the murky world of the international oil industry and its role in world politics.
Scandals about oil are familiar to most of us. From George W. Bush's election victory to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, US politics and oil enjoy a controversially close relationship. The US economy relies upon the cheap and unlimited supply of this single fuel.

William Engdahl takes the reader through a history of the oil industry's grip on the world economy. His revelations are startling. Moving from the post-World War I period up to the present day, he shows how oil is and has always been the motivating factor in international policy and conflicts.

Shedding light on the 1970s oil shocks and the grand strategy of Washington after the end of the Cold War, Engdahl presents a convincing case that geopolitics and oil were behind the collapse of the Soviet Union, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the rise and fall of the Taliban. He reveals evidence to show that the US and UK decision to go to war in Iraq was not simply an issue of corporate greed. It was a strategic move to control the world economy for the following half century or more.
UniversityOfMichiganPress

"...As the documents show, prior to the U.S. invasion, foreign oil companies were nicely positioned for future involvement in Iraq, while the major U.S. oil companies, after years of U.S.-Iraqi hostilities, were largely out of the picture. Indeed, the U.S. majors would have been the big losers if U.N. sanctions against Iraq had simply been lifted. "The U.S. majors stand to lose if Saddam makes a deal with the U.N. (on lifting sanctions)," noted a report by Germany's Deutsche Bank in October 2002.

The disadvantaged position of U.S. oil companies in Saddam Hussein's Iraq would have presumably been on the minds of senior oil company executives when they met secretly with Cheney and his task force in early 2001. The administration refuses to divulge exactly who met with the task force, and continues to fight legal challenges to force disclosure. However a 2003 report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded that the task force relied on advice from the oil industry, whose close ties to the Bush administration are legendary. (George W. Bush received more money from the oil and gas industry in 1999 and 2000 than any other U.S. federal candidate received over the previous decade.) ...
Crude Dudes
{touch up; EE}

"May you live in interesting times"--Ancient Curse

Carlhole - I share your view on Carter's proposal, though I suspect that if the current oil-man-in-power were to oversee a withdrawal it would be done in a manner to maximize the destabilization of the ME and its oil production.
This is not to accuse him of incompetence, as the track of his conduct since before the Twin Towers attack could scarcely have been better calculated to achieve that outcome. Its predictable consequence is the advancement of the date of peak oil.

There's an axiom used here in Britain that applies neatly to the US army in Iraq:
"If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."
By the way, many thanks for your excellent posts of News items.
regards,
Backstop

You know I think history is going to look back and be pretty kind to Jimmy Carter and pretty harsh on the Republicans. His stressing of conservation and alternative energies looks pretty visionary right now. What would have happened if we would have put time and energy into alternative fuels in the late 1970's? It almost makes you want to cry when you think of all that precious time that was lost.

You know, I'm no fan of the war in Iraq, but I'm sure you all must realize the consequences if the US were to pull out of Iraq right now. The US would lose face big-time and Iraq would fall apart into civil war.

Maybe it needs putting simply:
The position in Iraq is worsening the longer the occupation continues.
Therefore the occupation must be ended.
The manner in which it is ended governs whether this will worsen or improve the position.
"It'll be worse without us" is as flawed an argument as any used over the invasion, however well-meant.
regards,
Backstop

Don' forget about the most illustrious:
Carter Doctrine

The more things change, the more they stay the same....

Backstop plays to the heart and The Supply Guy to the brain.
But hold hard! America has already lost face big time. Gone is any semblance of moral rectitude. Military failure too - early riots, destruction of the whole infrastrucure, torture, failure to put enough boots on the ground to suppress insurgents, failure to kick Fallujah into touch first time and, amazingly, Al Sadr's still alive.

As for cut and run, you've got the Turks sweating over the posibility that the Kurds might grab Kirkuk and gain an independent state. No way they'll sit on the border if the USA ups and leaves. Syrai and Iran won't like that. And Iran is hovering over Basra with its oil pipes to the sea - the Carter doctrine opposes that. The Saudi's won't be too happy if Iran, with its nuclear mullahs, expands either. Also, the place is now Al Queda magnet number 1.
Can't stay, can't leave?

The words in his speech have an uncanny ring to them with regard to our post-peak future:

President Carter offered 10 guiding principles in his memorable speech to the American people. Conservation was the cornerstone.

Text and mp3 audio: link

I remember that speech, I was 15 years old. Carter unfortunately didn't realize until it was too late that the average American is an immature airhead. People, especially Republicans, still think that America is invincible. I've noticed that this site has become somewhat sensitive to partisan posts, but give me a break, I've NEVER met a Republican who gave a damn about the environment or it's limited resources. I talk with Republicans everyday at work and while pretending to agree with them I get a glimpse of their pathologically and sometimes violently simpleton world outlook.

Unfortunately, the rest of us have to deal with the consequences of their childish actions.

The 'average' American is not 100% to blame here....OPEC came to a conclusion - Hey , if the Americans actually DO these things, the market for our product will go away, and opened up the spigot again at a low price.
Ok, perhaps the 'average' American is an airhead.
Carter tried giving America a 20+ year head start. Too bad this was squandered. (and I still would like to see James Carter make some comments in the expert section)

Do you realise that he might have been right all along. Were it not for the oil shocks which occurred shortly after that speech, we would could have been peaking in the late eighties.

We made great strides in conservation in the years after this speech until Ronald "Energy crisis? What energy crisis?" Reagan took over. Which was the point of my previous post "when we went wrong".

Americans, like members of any other society, can be led in whatever direction those in power choose to lead them. They can be led towards a sustainable lifestyle or they can be led to serve corporate profitability by mindlessly borrowing and consuming.

The American way of life has been unsustainable since the 70's. This is not a "recent" phenomenom. Modern economics and industrial society are based on un-sustainable assumptions and preconditions.