Global Fuel Economy Readiness

Especially for those of us in the US, the ever creeping up gas costs (though still very low by international standards) stares us in the face every day as we drive past the gas stations.

However, fundamentally, crude oil is a finite commodity and we will run out of easy oil eventually.  For places like the US, its a big potential problem as the entire country is designed around easy and cheap gas since outside of a couple of cities, you need to drive to get anywhere.

So important policy decisions need to be made to address this eventual issue.  For fuel economy, how ready is the world for it?

At The Economist, they put together a readiness index status.  As you can see below, Europe is relatively prepared, US barely, while the poorer countries and developing countries are in for a pain someday in the future if they don't get started soon.