This is an important opinion piece that challenges a nation to conserve a commodity that is, literally, killing us slowly like a nicotine habit. Nicotine and gasoline addiction have much in common, including the inability to function without it even though conscious of its effects on ourselves and others, especially children, whose future hinges on whether we see the obvious, most logical solution: conservation. Jerry Brown does deserve credit for bringing this notion into the public consciousness, and Bob Herbert does a fine job of documenting this factually. However, while Gov. Brown walked the walk, Jimmy Carter just talked the talk, which I recently documented in my own research on this topic. In 1979, a year like this one with respect to energy efficiency, Carter in his State of the Union speech praised business as usual: 1) "Our economy offers greater prosperity for more of our people than ever before. Real per capita income and real business profits have risen substantially in the last 2 years." 2.) "Business and labor have been increasingly supportive." 3.) "Through deregulation of the airline industry we've increased profits. ... This year, we must begin the effort to reform our regulatory processes for the railroad, bus, and the trucking industries." 4.) "America has the greatest economic system in the world. Let's reduce government interference and give it a chance to work." Carter's humanitarian impulses were not realized because of his embrace of big business including carmakers who gave us gas guzzlers still getting the same gas mileage in 2008, slightly above the 12.5 average mpg of the ravenous SUV. One of the most obvious solutions to conservation is to impose the tax on SUVs, which have circumvented the law for too long, skirting the 12.5 mark after 30 years. (See: http://suvs.about.com/od/fueleconomy/a/jf_gasguzzler.htm ) Apart from that, this op-ed lives up to the promise of the title, spelling out "the winning hand," conservation and alternative fuels.