re: I'm feeling guilty over this...

I live in Georgia. Peanut farmers here stand to make a lot of money if we used more biodiesel, for example.

It's not an either/or as several posters have implied on this thread. We DO need to CUT BACK on our oil consumptions, and not just for environmental reasons. We're giving a lot of money to dictatorships in this hemisphere (Venezuela) and elsewhere (the Middle East) because of our oil obsession here. The "drill baby, drill" crowd ignored the risks involved with drilling in our backyard. Sure, stronger regulation would have prevented this current spill, but the drill baby drill crowd are also opposed to regulating the oil industry. As it stands, the people who have been regulating the industry for the last couple of decades have been people FROM the industry. In other words, the inmates were running the asylum (kind of like Wall Street...). That's a recipe for disaster.

The OP has a great point about electric cars or using hybrids. Our major cities should also invest more in mass transit infrastructure development, particularly light rail (which uses electric power). But most importantly, WE AS AMERICANS NEED TO SHIFT OUR THINKING. Particularly in the South, people love their cars and trucks and shite. Take the train to work. Carpool. Try to live in a walking community or closer to the office. Fight against urban sprawl instead of embracing it. shite, do this for no reason other than to avoid sitting in traffic for an hour and a half each morning and afternoon. Your quality of life will improve, and you won't be funding dictators and terrorists to the extent that you are now. Energy independence is both a national security issue and a quality of life issue. We should all be behind it, regardless of party affiliation. Quit all the partisan bullshite and look at it objectively.

Which is better for you and everyone around you, burning more or burning less fossil fuels?

Which is better for you personally, spending more money per month on fuel costs or less?

Heck, ignore the rest of this post and just answer those two questions honestly. Let's drop all the partisan and reactionary nonsense and focus on the issues at hand. Using less oil is beneficial to us as a society, both now and for future generations. Let's work together on that instead finding ways to attack each other.