I borrowed a friend's car not too long ago, just for a few hours. I think gas was $3.65 or thereabouts at the time. To thank this friend for his generosity, I decided I was going to fill his tank. There was a line at the station; this particular chain of stations offered the cheapest gas in Burlington at the time, and I sat and waited for my turn.

“Almost four dollars a gallon!” called out the guy next to me. It was a little awkward keeping conversation over the rumble of engines and the ten yards or so separating us, but I shouted back that I agreed. “It's gotta level out soon, though,” he told me. When people make comments like these, my instinct is to launch into an explanation of peak oil and the global economics of petroleum. Instead, I think I shrugged. Of course, I was naïve to think I was going to fill my friend's tank, or even pump in half a tank of gas. I'm not made of money. It had been a while since I drove a car, so how was I supposed to know?

Speaking of which, I'm beginning to wonder how people do it. I mean, beyond the costs of maintenance and insurance, with the prices at the pump climbing the way they are, how can anyone making under six figures afford to drive these days? Is it just me, or is owning a car starting to seem like more of a burden than traveling alternatively—you know, by public transport, bicycle, or foot?

So I wound up at a quarter of a tank for just over $20. I gave the car back to my friend as if it were a baby with spit-up. “Take it away, please. It's nice for a while, but take it back now.”

“You don't need it any longer? No errands you need to run?”

No, I told him. I needed to eat and pay my bills for the week, thank you.

I was not surprised to learn that Exxon Mobil decided to exit the retail gas industry this week. So there they go, running from a business that is sure to die faster than you can say “six dollars a gallon.” It's weird, though, seeing these kinds of things happen. Three years ago, when I first started reading about peak oil, predictions of airlines going bankrupt, increased prices of food, and a failing retail gas industry were nothing more than the musings of intelligent, well-read peak oil geeks with the knowledge to make such informed opinions. And, when I found myself slowly descending into the category of peak oil nerd myself, I was frustrated beyond the telling of it when roughly half the people I talked to about oil depletion looked at me with the kind of skepticism you reserve for a person preaching at your doorstep about the Word of a vengeful and odious God.

Now I don't look so crazy, which, I have to admit, affords me some amount of satisfaction with my peers who once thought I was a nutcase. When I spoke with a co-worker about peak oil the other day (never unsolicited, of course; I'm not trying to convert or anything) it actually made a lot of sense to him. It explained, for example, why his friend who owns a pizza business now needs to pay triple or more what he used to for a bag of flour. It explains a lot of things.

People are listening, but they don't all know yet what's up. A recent poll conducted by CNN asked Americans for their opinions on why the price of gas is so high. A staggering 61% blamed unethical behavior (on whose behalf, they didn't specify). Nothing related to peak oil was offered as an option for the polees. Even if it were, I'm guessing people would have still looked to assign blame to some physical entity and not a large and complex phenomena describing our shared reliance on a finite energy source. But the people at Exxon Mobil sure seem to know what's up; why else would a company that owns a fifth of the retail gas stations in the U.S. choose to sell them off so suddenly?

I have to admit, though, it's pretty easy to write about the wonders of using my own two feet to get around when it's averaging 70 degrees or more outside. It was in the dead of winter that I almost broke down and bought a car. Gas prices be damned; when it's cold enough that you actually worry about your eyelids freezing shut on a ten minute walk to the grocery store, just under four bucks a gallon looks like a very reasonable price indeed. But I weathered the storm, literally. I took the bus. I paid for cabs. I made do with the generosity of others, or I bundled up. And you know what else? I saved a lot of money doing so.