SDF said:

>Beijing decides whether they want their energy consumption
>trend to continue. It's not up to consumers. They may decide
>early not to permit runaway consumption, which could cause
>resource wars elsewhere, just like the USA in Iraq. Or they
>could use that western paranoia as a strategic tool for
>controlling the world economy.

My impression from friends who live and work in China is that
China's economy is based upon a form of laissez-faire anarchism with the Chinese communist government acting as little more than a
veneer. The Chinese communists stick their nose in when they try to support an old state run enterprise (which almost always fail and lose lots of money) or when they feel their own power directly threatened. Supposably this hands-off relationship is starting to become an issue because there really is no formal "rule of law" within China. I've been told that legally binding contracts and civil litigation are not really options in China (all business is based upon person-to-person hand shake agreements and local reputation). The Chinese government is probably incapable of controlling its energy consumption at the domestic retail level (the communist government can certainly manage big centrally planned projects like hydroelectric schemes).

>The best way to protect yourself is to eliminate the weakness...
>eliminate the use of oil. Find new symbols for freedom, eliminate
>the strength of the car as a status symbol, make it a subject of
>scorn instead, rebuild cities and towns to eliminate the need for
>motor vehicles.

Petroleum is the basis of our econony. Supposably our gross domestic product scales directly with the price of crude oil. We are bald ass naked against the threat of oil shocks. Yes, we need to change this situation as soon as possible. Decades ago, President Carter tried to ween us off petroleum to coal and alternative energy but his actions were reversed by Reagan. Our whole infrastructure remains predicated upon the assumption of cheap petroleum. For example, the San Francisco Bay Area will simply not function if people can not commute from their homes to work (often times half hour one-way commutes on the freeway). The situation is worse in Los Angeles. The era of cheap petroleum is ending and our world will change forever. The question remains whether we (the United States) can transition to a non-petroleum economy without the whole house of cards collapsing.

Gary