ABSTRACT
Petroleum is the fuel of globalized modernity. Around one-third of total global energy consumption – especially within transport systems – depends on oil. Cities are where the majority of humanity now lives, and petroleum fuels provide the essential basis for urban travel, most prominently among the spatially dispersed car dependent urban regions of North America and Australia. Since the early 2000s, urban planners have begun to develop a closer understanding of petroleum security issues and to track shifts in global petroleum supplies so they can better craft measures to address their implications for cities. An informed and energy literate planning profession is essential to future public debates over energy use in cities, whether in the car dependent global urban regions or in those urban areas less reliant on petroleum.
