MonteQuest likes to say: WWII is the only thing that brought the U.S. out of the depression. I was thinking about this, and it hit me. When we go into peak oil depression, the way out of it is a war.
We could declare a "war on energy scarcity" or a "war on sprawl", but that would just be another war on top of the other 10 rhetorical wars we are already waging. Everybody would just roll over and push the snooze button.
No, we need a real war, which uses astronomical amounts of gasoline. It's going to have to be a war on a large scale; these little skirmishes in the Middle East aren't going to do it. They don't put enough pressure on the U.S. No, we need a war which taxes the U.S. to the limit -- to the point where sprawl is recognized as the potentially lethal vulnerability it is. How fast could the U.S. desprawl if they needed that fuel "for the troops"? I'm thinking pretty damn fast.
Gasoline would have to be conserved in to ensure the victory of Freedom. Jingoistic rednecks would be riding to work on their red-white-and-blue bicycles, with a patriotic flag flapping behind. This would be the final culmination of the Geo Green idea.