The next time someone dismisses urban rail based mass transit, electrification of rail, or expanding navigable waterways in the U.S.A., give them a fact smack upside the head.
Oil reserves in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaProven oil reserves in the United States are 21 billion barrels (3.3×10^9 m3), excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The U.S. Department of the Interior estimates the total volume of undiscovered, technically recoverable prospective resources in all areas of the United States, including the Federal Outer Continental Shelf, the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, and the Bakken Formation, total 134 billion barrels (21.3×10^9 m3) of crude oil. This excludes oil shale reserves, as there is no significant commercial production of oil from oil shale in the United States.
STEO Table Browser : U.S. Crude Oil and Liquid Fuels Supply, Consumption, and Inventories U.S. oil consumption: down to 19.2 million barrels / day, due to the economic contraction in 2008.
Domestic production is 4.96 million barrels / day. (2008)
100 x (19.2 - 4.96/19.2 ) = 74% is imported
That's roughly 14.24 million barrels / day we import - and if it was cut off, for whatever reason, what happens?
0.6 billion barrels of oil = one month U.S. consumption
How long will our domestic supply last?
PROVEN RESERVES = 35 months
(3 years) 
And if we spent the next ten years exploiting every possible oil resource, we're still in trouble.
TOTAL OIL RESERVES (unproven) = 223 months (
18 years)
POINT: We do not possess sufficient domestic oil to continue consuming it at current rates. Nor can we afford to increase imports to cover the shortfall.
POINT: We must develop alternative transportation that can operate without consuming 20 million barrels of oil per day.
Before petroleum, there were railroads and boats.
After petroleum, there will be electric railroads and boats.
If we wait until the oil spigot is shut off, it will be too late and too difficult to construct the necessary infrastructure to :
[] Electrify all railroads
[] Build / rebuild electric urban rail mass transit (streetcars, trams, interurbans, light rail, subways, funiculars, etc., etc.)
[] Engineer navigable waterways - dam rivers - build locks - construct canals - dredge channels.
The next time someone says that "urban rail" is too expensive, or that we can all drive hybrids, smack 'em good. We don't have the luxury to stick our heads in the sand. The Age of Cheap and Plentiful Oil is over.
And even if nothing is done, you can always relocate yourself to an area that has a navigable waterway, close proximity to mainline rail, and / or is supplied with hydroelectricity. That will maximize your chances of surviving the big "E" on the fossil fuel tank.
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