New (sub)Urbanism touches on a topic that is repeatedly ignored by American policymakers - the need to begin envisioning a time when oil is simply not as available and plentiful as it is currently. You can debate how much oil is recoverable, or how much we could pump from ANWR - but to blithely assume that we'll just keep pumping and refining and consuming is foolish at best, and societally disastrous at worst. It is a finite resource, and we can either begin to plan and research for the post-petroleum era now, or be forced to devise a post-petroleum economy and society when the wells stop pumping.