I Blame Aucoot Cove.

According to GOP orthodoxy, if we could only break into that cabin full of scotch across the dirt road our drinking problem would be solved.

The average miles of commute for Americans to their job today, compared to 1970, is greater by one to three orders of magnitude.

We are a nation tied to our automobiles in a way that we were not during the Arab oil embargo. Land use patterns are a huge factor in petroleum consumption. If you drive 70 miles round trip to work each day, this is not a consumption pattern that you can easily alter.

In 1975, my father drove 50 miles from Easton, Mass. to Bolton and Sterling, Mass. during the winter to prune commercial apple orchards. At that time, a 100 mile per day commute to work was considered bizarre; and my father stayed overnight at the orchard several nights a week to save on gas.

Today, a 100 mile a day round trip work commute is considered quite normal. Nobody bats an eyelash.