The oil squeeze

The recent spike in oil prices has been a long time coming, and the mess Americans find themselves in is largely one of our own making.

We represent about 4% of the world's population but consume a quarter of the world's daily oil production. And 70% of that we use for transportation.

We've passed up opportunities for decades to improve the efficiency of our cars and trucks. Here's the story of how we got ourselves into this predicament.