It is understandable that you had to simplify your discussion on this subject but it does in the end mean that your conclusions are stilted.

For instance, I worked on a farm when I was younger. The farm had two almost identical John Deere tractors, but one ran on gasoline and the other ran on diesel.

All kinds of prime movers (buses, large trucks, etc.) are now powered by Natural Gas that used to be powered by diesel. You focused too much on diesel.

Already the transition/allocation of precious resources is happening. Airplane manufacturers are exploring using hydrogen or electric power. They could also use propane or natural gas.

Powerplants are being built to be flexible, to use either hydrogen or natural gas. Backup generators that used to use diesel are now powered by natural gas.

Yeah, we need to conserve diesel for use where it is best but that is mostly to avoid having to modify or replace expensive capital equipment.

You seem to confuse peak oil with no oil. We might already be past peak oil but that would only be because of a lack of demand. Producers have cut back production because lack of demand was suppressing prices. Funny thing is increased prices pushes demand even lower. Peak oil seems not to be going to be caused by alternatives not by a lack of oil. Thankfully we are not going to run out of oil, we are going to choose to leave it in the ground. We need to leave it in the ground.

The world will be a different place when we have an excess of clean energy and I understand that a lot of people are going to suffer and die before that transition is complete, but it will be happening.

We are not going to see a complete collapse; we will see a kind of depression that will thin the herd as we suffer the transition to whatever is next.

TEK