Date line 2030

As is well known, peak oil was declared to have occurred somewhere between 2006 and 2010. By 2013 spot shortages were common, by 2015, major disruptions began to ratchet up. Due to the extreme volatility of fuel prices during this period, however, when finances allowed, consumers in every major industrial country were still buying cars. Short sighted planning and oil industry propaganda about new petroleum developments that never bore out, resulted in periods of low gas prices and frenzies of car buying. Now of course, the streets are littered with abandoned cars.

Some analysts say that where we went wrong was when the European Union and the Obama administration finally agreed in 2013 to outlaw all biofuels. The oil industry campaign and their unwitting allies in the “environmental” movement had finally broken the soy and corn lobbies control over Washington energy policy and convinced the world that ANY use of a biofuel was tantamount to murder. Even bootleggers and moonshiners making fryer grease fuel, and backyard 99 proof gasohol were rounded up and imprisoned. Joshua Tickell, the biofuel activist, died during a prison hunger strike in early 2014, just as the first fuel shortages were tearing holes in the economy.

Shortly thereafter the fuel was rationed and a portion was reserved for emergency services only. It is my unfortunate duty today to report that the last gallon of fuel allocated for these purposes was pumped into an ambulance last week. Now municipalities all over the nation have declared that the remaining fuel is simply too expensive to buy for any purpose at all. President Chevron is trying to mandate purchasing it and demanding that cities issue even more bonds to cover the cost. City leaders respond that there is no one left (but oil executives) to buy the bonds and are standing fast against it. Congress is solidly against President Chevron and vice president Rockefeller and their administration’s broken promises.

A few cities can boast that they have small fleets of rickshaw ambulance services, but with food shortages being what they are, few people have the energy to run anyone to the hospital and their range is obviously limited. Horses are being used by police and horse drawn wagon fire brigades are being spotted again in some places like Portland. However, in the desert Southwest, where global warming has had some of the most extreme effects and water is scarce, there is not enough forage for the police horses, so bicycles are the preferred method. Parts for these, however, are getting harder to come by as they can only be salvaged from bikes already in the area.

China, on the other hand, ignored the international community as they were wont to do, and began in earnest an algae biodiesel research program in 2007. By 2015 they were in full production and chose to close their borders rather than share their secrets with the “ungrateful and imperialist west,” as their minister of energy (later to become the prime minister) said in 2016. Reports out of China are rare but some report that 21^st Century China looks a lot like 20^th century America. Others scarcely believe it.

Critics say that we needed the last of the cheap fossil fuels to make the transition and now, of course, it is too late. Some people’s greatest fear is that the Chinese, having completely bested the rest of the world, will exercise imperialist notions of their own. Some wish they would because it would be better than watching children die of malnutrition or infections that would have been easily treated only two short decades ago.

Nonetheless, there are reports of an underground resistance movement called the Biodieselistas that plans on overthrowing President Chevron. Armored vehicles formerly thought to be defunct have mysteriously disappeared from disheveled army bases. It is rumored that the resistance has well placed allies within congress. Leaflets have been circulated (on recycled paper of course) that warn of an impending upheaval leading to a better way of life. The typical story goes that the resistance has been painstakingly cultivating algae in disused swimming pools in out of the way places. They squeeze the dried algae with primitive tools turning the oils into biodiesel and the cellulose into ethanol and methanol using contraband stills. Others claim that they are disrespecting the dead, raiding mass graves which are of course ubiquitous, and turning their very bodies into fuel for their stolen war machines.

I for one hope the rumors are true and I don’t care how they make their fuel. For that matter I hope the Chinese invade. Perhaps they are in league with the resistance. Perhaps the resistance is our only hope against the Chinese. In any case, something has to change and change soon. VIVA LA RESISTIANCE!