I see a similar problem a little further down the road when we are past peak, where the same type of thing could happen to wind farms and the possibility of widespread theft of solar photovoltaic panels because if there are general industrial problems in an energy scare world then the production cost and hence value of these could rise very very quickly.

This could turn out to be one of the key problems with not preparing at least one if not two decades in advance of peak which is that alternative energies would not be widespread enough and because of the depth of the shortages and general chaos, it becomes impossible to build more. Essentially we would be in negative feedback terrority with regard to being able to add any capacity and instead the limited alternative energy capacity would be at risk.

What this implies is that right now, TODAY, every major industrial country should devise a plan and put it into action as quick as possible to rapidly increase the amount of wind and solar power, giving it the highest priority possible.

Turning energy centres into fortress will probably not work and will be very costly and perhaps more importantly cause a culture shift of the negative variety.