Kunstler, oil, and the new normal.

Peak Oil prophet and all around curmudgeon has a new post up that hits the perfect note during this week of gas price hysteria. We are deep into the blame game. As I said below I do think big oil is gouging. A windfall profit tax will not produce more oil, though. We need clarity and action now. Supply and demand have met. High prices and price spikes are the natural result. Nibbling around edges is just that - nibbling around the edges.

One other comment - CNN is running a promo tonight for Anderson Cooper's show in which an angry consumer (since we are not really people anymore - just pass through agents for dollars) outside a gas station. There is a shot of the prices and she says with pique "This is not normal."

Yes. It is. Given the amount of oil we use, the amount we have used, the amount left and our denial of the reality of all of it - the prices we have now are, in fact, the new normal.