The appearance of $3 gas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year showed the tenuous U.S. hold on plentiful and cheap fuel.
The worst of it, however, was soon over, and prices declined.

But what if there were a sharp shortfall in oil supplies that was permanent instead of lasting just a few weeks or months? An event so far-reaching that it could transform the American way of life and much of the world economy?

Matthew Simmons has a message for you: Count on it.

Simmons is the author of the recently published book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, which has put him at the center of a debate over whether oil supplies will be sufficient in the future. In short, he says, the answer is no. And the time to prepare for it was