Why We Are Addicted To Oil

"By now, President Bush's wildly irresponsible remarks on energy in his state of the union speech may have already vanished down the memory hole, but the damage will linger on. 'America is addicted to oil,' Mr. Bush began, failing to mention that underlying this addiction was a living arrangement that required people to drive their cars incessantly. A clueless public will continue to believe that 'the best way to break this addiction is through technology
. . .' and that 'we must also change how we power our automobiles.'

Mr. Bush recommended ethanol. As one wag put it after the speech: 'America's heroin is oil, and ethanol will be our methadone.' The expectation will still be that everybody must drive incessantly."

So sayeth James Howard Kunstler. Lots of driving is elective, not required to keep one's job. Americans love driving, no matter how expensive and dangerous it may be. Only the poor use public transportation. Very few people even take the middle ground by carpooling.

Americans love to drive around in their cars, alone, because we want to isolate ourselves from others whenever possible.