Hmm I don't think Bush can be voted for president again since they have a 2 season limit for one person to act as a president.
Plastics and stuff are actually by-products of oil industry, AFAIK the stuff is so cheap that drilling for oil just because of plastics would never be commercially viable.
This same problem is evident in metals: we are predicted to run out of copper, zinc, lead, tin & quicksilver all in at most 100 years. And that's not really so long...
The oil issue is exactly why USA is investing a lot into hydrogen technology right now, and Shell & all the rest are hoarding pantents so that when the oil prices start to rise too much, they can just dominate the energy market just like before
Still I think we have SO good luck that we'll be at least running out of oil so that we'll be forced to create alternative ways of producing energy and not just burn away the fossils for all eternity. (I always thought that the fact that the modern world is almost completely dinosaur-powered is hilarious!)
I used to think that nuclear power was a bad choice, but the more I've been getting to these issues, the more I'm convinced that it's the only realistic way to produce enough electricity for the whole world for the next 50 years or so until renewables will probably be advanced enough to replace that tech for all eternity... It's not a good choice, but it's the best we have I believe. Choices like this are sometimes so painfully NOT easy. We really couldn't afford any more atmospheric warming, and the 60% we'd have to cut the emissions to even stop the current trend in warming is ridiculously high and without either a cultural change of immense proportions or nuclear power, we'll never achieve that...
If I understood Dave arc-i right, he proposed that coal would be a good alternative. Weel, it's absolutely the worst there is! Coal power pollutes only in the form of co2 from 4 to 8 times more than gas power.
Coal also produced the most waste since not nearly all of the coal is burned in the process. The sulphur also has to be filtered away, and this produces huge piles of plaster (calciumsulfate) or calciumsulfite. It's not toxic in itself, but it has to be got rid of somehow...
Burning coal also produces the most aerosols, small particles that aren't understood very well yet, but that are evidently very dangerous.
Of the fossils, gas is best, and there will be enough for hundreds of years so we'll probably never run out of it since by that time technology will be so advanced that the only place we'll find fossil fuels is the museum.
If you are bothered by dependence, you can always just make your own from vegetable oils. The problem here is that I think it's ethically suspect to use edible plants, soy especially, to create fuel for the cars... But it still might just be better than supporting the oil companies any further!
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html