The decline of US housing is good for peak oil mitigation in my view. i.e. The last thing we need to be doing right now is building infrastructure that is obviously unsuited for a post peak world.

A recession would be good too. They almost always lead to decreased oil consumption in the US and they tend to wake people up to the fact that living at the bleeding edge of your income is a recipe for pain. Recessions also force people to work less overall, which is good too, because production consumes limited resources just like consumption does.

All in all, perhaps one of the better possible cases going forward is a normal recession in the OECD with persistently high crude prices. That combo has brought welcome changes in the past.