Oil drunks

Do you ever feel like an oil drunk? I do. The last time I felt this guilty about U.S. oil use was in the early 80's when my eighth grade class had to write essays on "A World Without Oil".

My essay was like most of the others - a doomsday scenario where the oil faucet was quickly shut off and we lived in a dark world similar to Gotham City in the “Batman” movie. There was one boy who wrote a hopeful essay where the world chugged along the same but with solar power and windmill stations where you filled-up your car.

Today, I imagine my essay would still have a doomsday feel to it. It’s hard for me to be optimistic when I know that the U.S. comprises 25% of total world oil consumption and that if the Chinese lived like us, they’d use about 87.5 million barrels of oil per day which is over ten times more than what they use now.

I wonder if that boy who is now a man has written a 12-step program to make us oil independent or if he’s out on the bay driving his speedboat. I need someone to look to for guidance because Exxon predicts that in the year 2030 we will need 60% more energy than we do today.

I'm hoping that today's eighth graders have better answers than we did.