Well written article, pretty accurate on the consumer side, but not quite so accurate on the production side, and a bit misleading.

What's missing is the word "known" when describing the available supply of oil. New oil reserve are being found all the time and the offshore reserves grew by quantum leaps this year alone. Stating the "offshore contributions would barely be significant" is flat untrue. There are billions upon billions of gallons on crude offshore waiting to be tapped.

Although oil prices are set by a global market the time honored tradition of supply and demand still determines the global price and the less you need to purchase elsewhere – the better.

Is offshore drilling a magic bullet – no.

Can, and should it be a key component along with reducing consumption, alternative energy sources, on our road to energy independence – absolutely.

Uncle Dave

I agree. Life needs to change. Like for one, why does the country that uses the MOST oil in the world not have the most efficient cars? Europe is getting all these great cars, like by VW that get like 70mpg and we get the Hummer. Corporations, people and everything in between needs to change it's behavior.

Do you have any Peak Oil sites you recommend?

The biggest problem with oil is the global peak in its production. Once supply no longer meets demand, the world could become a very different place. Our addiction to oil runs deep into our culture and our agriculture. For every calorie of food on your plate, about 11 calories went into it! The transportation and and fertilization of our food is very much dependent on hydrocarbon energy.

The rise in oil consumption in Asia is going to create a much larger demand for oil in the coming years and supplies seem to be getting smaller and fewer and fewer new oil fields are being discovered. The term "Peak Oil" is gradually becoming a household term and if you are not familiar with it, you should look it up!

There is no easy solution to this problem and there may not really be a real solution. Life as we know it will likely have to change a lot and become much more localized and less consumptive. There is no reason why we can not be happy here in the USA whilst consuming much less energy. Surveys from other countries show people are just as happy as we are while consuming a fraction of the energy we do.

Well, I am not saying it has to be phased out completely but our dependence on it is far from reasonable. For example, some of those products you mentioned do not need to be made from crude oil.

But ya, I agree…we have some pretty serious behavioral changes to overcome. I hope we can.

Can you imagine a world without plastic bottles, shampoo and conditioners, asphalt, paint on your cars or bikes, CDs, DVDs, and ceiling fans?

Can we live without oil?

Are we even ready to step out of our confort zone and make the change ourselves? Will we recycle and consume less when no ones else is watching?