oh dear...a vicious pincer?

we are trying to get ready for winter by insulating part of our house. costly and messy. this quote from howard kunstler makes me wonder how things will be as the cold sets in here in North America.
fair warning: if you follow the link you will discover mr kunstler is eloquent but, much of the time, hypberbolic. he's also not averse to using language that causes offense. i tend to think he is somewhere between a much-needed stone crying out and a doomsdaying madman. worth listening to, never the less.

"...In any case, I don't expect oil prices in America to lay low for long. By Christmas, gasoline pump prices will have joined home heating prices
in a vicious pincer around the neck of the non-rich classes. The serious public conversation of our energy predicament has not begun, and when it does it will be too late. In the background of all this, an economy based on suburban sprawl and easy motoring is going to absolutely fall on its ass, and that means a much quicker end to the housing bubble than we might have expected a month ago. It might also lead to both the demise of the airline industry and the nationalization of what remains of it. It will certainly quash any remaining faith that such an economy can produce wealth, which is what the financial markets are based on, so look out below on Wall Street."