Like I said in a previous post, there is no substitute for oil. When oil runs out, our energy consumption will decrease to sustainable levels, i.e. renewable levels. For example electrical supply will decrease by 25%-40%, and personal transportation will decrease to zero.

I have run some tests to see how I could survive in the absence of oil supply, and drastically reduced electrical power. I found that I could survive, but with some very important changes in lifestyle. For example I would have to wash clothes in the bathtub and air-dry them; I would get around by bicycle; I would do without refrigeration by drinking water, and eating breakfast foods that do not require milk. I could avoid using fuel-oil or electricity to boil water by eating foods that do not need to be cooked. This is an area of culinary art that needs a lot more development.

There would be a great deal of responsibility placed on the shoulders of community leaders. For example, there must be a clean running water supply. There must be natural gas during the winter to provide heat for at least one room in each home, assuming unused rooms are closed off. There must also be supply lines to deliver food from farm to market. Coal liquefaction can provide sufficient gasoline for delivery vehicles, locomotives, container ships, tractor-trailers, emergency vehicles, public transit, aircraft. I am 100% certain that motorized personal transportation will become obsolete.

Therefore infrastructure problems will be food production & functioning supply lines in the absence of oil-based gasoline or diesel fuel. Most likely coal-liquefaction facilities will be needed to supply gasoline to cargo vehicles. Every person should be issued a bicycle, every home should have a tire pump, and repair shops should be within walking distance of all neighborhoods. Every home should have at least one coal-oil lamp, and a supply of rope, clothes pins, and hammer & nails. The natural gas supply will be extraordinarily important during the winter, providing the only safe source of heat for residential boilers. Electricity may be rationed for the purpose of boiling water & cooking food. This may be done by introducing cut-offs to a residential electrical meter. Once the daily ration of electricity is consumed, it is cut off. This rationing may be extended as well to regulating what time of day it is used. This ensures that the power station has sufficient peak power to allow every residence a chance to cook dinner each evening. For example between 6pm-9pm there are six 1/2-hour meal-periods. Supplying power to different neighborhoods during each interval might cut peak power consumption by a factor of six. The alternative is to supply people with food that does not require cooking, but these foods are not readily available today.

People will still have to eat, sleep, go to work everyday. Entertainment may become scarce, but people will manage. When the oil runs out, it will be a difficult, depression-era, lifestyle. No joke. There is no substitute for oil, certainly not in the amounts used today.