to speculation, but the recent rise to over $80 per barrel again has to make people think. The coal mine explosions around the world and the Gulf oil catastrophe can't have hurt. Peak oil and net energy are serious issues. The sooner the business community comes to grip with them, the better the chances of a smooth, or at least less than calamitous, transition. I gave a presentation in San Francisco on Thursday of last week, and my slide-deck and talk dealt with the same issues. I explained the history of California transport systems, and how the current system was built out on 14 dollar oil between 1945 and 1970. I used historical and current data for counties like San Bernardino, to illustrate overall economic sensitivity to higher gasoline prices. In addition, I suggested in a more academic way that California as a culture currently had no transport plan outside of continuing automobile/highway build out. As a backgrounder, I showed that the developing world has turned to coal, not oil, to fund its growth because there is simply not enough of a supply response in oil to fund developing world growth rates which demand significant increases in energy supply. By the time I asked: do you think California can fund growth using oil, from this point forward? my work was essentially done. The Q+A lasted an hour, with several people still wanting to talk afterward. I was amazed I got no blowback from this group. People were from many of