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The End . . .

The mainstreaming of peak oil is proceeding. The Knoxville News Sentinel has an op-ed on the subject today (via Energy Bulletin) by Chad Emerson, who blogs at Daily Sprawl. Emerson writes, Quite simply, our cheap oil lifestyles do not have a viable future. And, with their demise will come a painful end to the individual, […]

The mainstreaming of peak oil is proceeding. The Knoxville News Sentinel has an op-ed on the subject today (via Energy Bulletin) by Chad Emerson, who blogs at Daily Sprawl. Emerson writes,

Quite simply, our cheap oil lifestyles do not have a viable future. And, with their demise will come a painful end to the individual, auto-centric system we’ve grown so used to. This will mean that, in order to get to places like our jobs, churches and grocery stores, we will have to find solutions other than the six-cylinder SUV.

To solve this problem, renewed ideas are required. For instance, in addition to living in walkable and bikeable communities, mass transit will have to become a way of life if we expect to be anywhere near as mobile as we are today.

Unfortunately, in Tennessee, the deck is stacked against this solution.

One of the main reasons is that the state spends exponentially more money on road construction than it does on transit-building. The shortsightedness of this approach is evidenced by the fact that, as oil costs permanently rise, fewer new highways will be needed since fewer drivers – both commercial and noncommercial – will be able to afford long commutes and other extensive car and truck travel.

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