PaulusP, I don’t know how much you know about Holland, but as a Dutchman I have to say that your comment does not do much justice to the Dutch.

Yes, I agree that many politicians here do not see all the consequences of peak oil. Yes, by using words like “renewable, sustainable, oil-dependency, ecological, environmental” the politicians try to put on their greenest faces, but when push comes to shove, it’s the money that counts. ..And we are cheap, even almost as cheap as the rest of the world.
However, with our “poldermodel” (endless discussion aiming for consensus with every party involved) you can only say we are behind in renewable energy not that we do not talk about it enough or are not aware of it.

Ofcourse we want more roads, everyone who encounters trafficjams demands that. However, of all the transport related taxes (excise taxes on fuel, excise taxes on new cars, taxes for using the road) only 11% gets re-invested in infrastructure. And the taxes we pay is high, very high, as you said yourself. In return, we get trafficjams, with the highest car/km2 ratio, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have the most/longest trafficjams per km motorway. Yes, we are mad, but I think that’s understandable.

And, no, we don’t blame the big oil. Recently there have been some actions regarding the fuelprices. Shell, Bovag and others were quick to inform the public on a nationwide platform that the fuelprices consist mostly of taxes. I don’t think there are many fuelconsumers left unaware of that. On the other hand we know that the oil has to come from somewhere and that it’s finite, we are down-to-earth-people.

I don’t know where you come from PaulusP, hopefully your government has a better plan.