Transport Fuel Rationing in the USA: Part 1 - Introduction

Let me tell you exactly what is going on "out there." The so-called developed world is watching two giant forces race each other to put an end to business-as-usual for industrial civilization. These two forces are the catastrophe of debt and predicament of oil supplies. They had been running neck-and-neck for a few years, but now the catastrophe of debt is pulling slightly ahead. But even this is an illusion because these two forces are actually hitched in tandem, with the rickety cart of civilization bouncing perilously behind them, and whatever one of these forces does will affect the other. Bad debt will eventually cripple the global oil industry's ability to perform, and the failures of the oil industry will only amplify the killing force of debt. It's that simple. http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/09/in-the-headlights.html  

I believe that one way that peak oil will manifest itself in the near future is in the form of transportation fuel rationing.  My goal in this multi-part series is to answer the question:

What would transportation fuel rationing in the USA look like if there were a disruption of USA’s ability to import its current amounts of oil?  And, how can I prepare for this?

(This is a redux of several posts I made at CM’s blog (http://www.chrismartenson.com/forum/pondering-civilian-gas-rationing-usa/43742). One error that I made in that earlier attempt was to make one or two massive posts that took me several hours to prepare, and was not at all “bite-sized.” I guess that it was just something I had to get it out of my brain, so I just kept calculating and writing.....)

Here, I have broken this subject into several reorganized parts:

Part 1: Introduction—the present post.
Part 2: Estimating Gasoline and Diesel use in the USA today.
Part 3: Gasoline and Diesel availability per Household.
Part 4: Gasoline and diesel availability during a hypothetical disruption in foreign oil imports.
Part 5: Can the Strategic Petroleum Reserve save us?
Part 6: Can retooling oil refineries save us?
Part 7: Past gasoline rationing plans in the USA.
Part 8: What can I do to prepare for fuel rationing?