You cannot tell Schumer anything. I was present during expert testimony on the hill in the mid-1980s when he was still in the House of Representatives and he made a complete ass of himself there showing no technical understanding of what was wrong with his proposed "cop killer bullet" and silencer ban even after people explained that he'd be outlawing nail guns, DNA insertion guns (one technique for DNA insert is attaching it to tiny tungsten pellets and shooting it into a cell), and a host of other common tools since the language of the bill was written so shoddily. He finally shut the hearing down in a fit of rage when one witness showed him a 1 liter Coke bottle with the bottom blown out, when the expert witness testified that this was the ultimate one shot silencer and asked if he was prepared to ban Coke bottle manufacture.

Since that day I've had nothing but contempt for Chuckie Schumer, his grandstanding, or his deliberate ignorance. That he refuses to understand peak oil or address the issue directly does not surprise me at all.

In fact, I will go so far as to say that as long as CONgress is staffed with CONmen (namely lawyers), we will have no forward progress on technical issues like global warming, peak oil, conservation, etc. Note that it is the rare congressional member like Bartlett who has a technical background who comes to grips with such issues. This is also why I laugh at people who think that electing Democrats instead of Republicans will make a difference.