World Without Oil

From Them:

Just what in the heck makes a good ol’ Texas boy who works at an evil big box store think he can help save the world (also known as "Mama told me that tunafish had gone over, but I ate it anyway")?
This morning when I woke up and looked outside, I saw the yard full of glossy black grackles. It seemed like something... I dunno - an omen? I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately on a certain glossy black substance, and now I’ve got these birds looking me in the eye, watching to see what I’d do next. They didn’t know which way I was going to jump - and honestly, neither do I. But I feel like I’ve got to do something, and soon.
You all know our story by now... airport snowstorm, mysterious stranger in what seemed like a tuckered-out and unguarded moment, dire-sounding prediction about an oil shock on April 30. I think some of the Eight took it more seriously than others. I know I scoffed at it, mostly. For all I knew it was some darned viral marketing thing like you read about in the papers.