"Well - given the option, the population will choose what ever source of power, whatever type of transport, whatever fuel is the most convenient and the cheapest. Currently that's vast quantities of petrolium being consumed at a high rate by lazy uneconomical engines in single-occupancy vehicles."

It seems to me that a huge portion of govt employees should be able do all their work from their home using internet connection.

"It doesnt take a genius to figure that the burning of massive ammounts of hydrocarbons is not a good thing to do to the environment,"
CO2 is plant food. If there was no CO2 in atmosphere, the environment would die.

"and nor is is sustainable long term in terms of natural resources - nor is the quality of the atmosphere than we ask our children to breath in our cities acceptable."

Homes in the green country will generally have higher CO2 levels then outside in any city. CO2 level at 380 parts per million is not unhealthy for children or anyone else. CO2 level at 1000 parts per million is not unhealthy. As for pollution, Americans are living in the least polluted environments that humans have ever lived in.
Remove the internal combustion engine [and not have something that can function as replacement] from our cities and cities would become far more unhealthy.

"You can argue over the graphs and the figures till the cows come home - but simply in terms of short term health and medium term resource availability - if the public at large refuse to conduct their lives in a more efficient and less polluting way, then legislation must be passed to either force, or encourage them to do so - Carrot or Stick is essentially the only choice one has to make - with neither, this unsustainable situation will not change."

Whatever, but before govt passes any laws imposing silly restriction, let's have the govt work force follow these laws first- say for 5-10 years. So as to test out these ideas and in general have a better understanding on it's effectiveness.
For instance is there any reason why elected officals of Congress need to go to the Capital? What kind of "message" would it send if these guys did most their business on line.