Energy: I've heard it said "Any conservation USA might do on fossil fuels wd quickly be taken up by China and India; thus, no savings at pump in price per gallon."
 This is simply false. It ignores something important to economics : numbers. The USA used 134.4 Billion gal of gas (plus 8B gal of ethanol) in 2007. China used 16.6 B. that's right : USA : China = 8:1. In other words, if we cut our consumption by 12.5%, the reduction wd equal 100% of China in 2007. Now, if we cut consumption by 25% that wd be a reduction of 33.7B equal to the total amount of France, India and China, and a couple of other industrial countries.  Calf used slightly more than Japan. Calf= 35 m people; Japan= 128 m. About equal number sq miles. Japan has more money.That is possible in 3 short years : drive less, higher mileage vehicles, more natural gas and more alcohol, although we are near limit on ethanol (already produce/use more than Brazil (sic). Now, there's no way China, India and Europe wd taken up 100% of that reduction. 60% : yes; 80% maybe. But 100% : no way. There are 10 million cars produced in USA every year; another 2-3 million imported. Thus, when Obama talks about 10-12 million hybrids in a decade, he is being as cautious as someone calling for a bronze in basketball in London in 2012.

What America is ripe for is a candidate who says "In 100 years, the world will look upon the last 2 decades as a time of great squandering of resources : energy, national unity and influence."

USA uses as much gas as the next 12 countries together. The main statistic one shd know about the USA is : there are zero mundane statistics about the USA. Not in patents, or crime or teenage pregnancy or energy or movies or immigrants or books or murders or spending or credit. Europe is a museum. The USA is a shopping center----with a software company and a bio-tech company across the street. The parking lot has 310 million cars in it.