America's cheap gasoline, which came with a heavy environmental price tag, was close to the end of its natural life even before Katrina and Rita. But these two horrific hurricanes, showing supreme indifference to the cocky confidence of the world's most powerful country, finished off cheap gas in a matter of weeks. Like an ugly tattoo discovered on our right forearm after a night of revelry, higher gas prices are announcing that America's oil binge is nearly over.

As environmentalists, we're biting our tongues to avoid the never welcome "I told you so," but an angry public is asking how we got ourselves into this mess. The full story is complex, but a lot of our ill preparedness boils down to Attitude, with a capital A.

Americans have always had Attitude. Attitude helped us build the most prosperous country in human history. But somewhere we crossed the line. In recent years, we suffered from so much Attitude, we thought the United States was exempt from the basic rules of economics, the laws of physics and the forces of nature.

Our government lives beyond its means and calls it "borrowing from our children." But it's China-not our children-loaning us much of the money to feed our appetite for cheap goods, our war in Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. As the Chinese economy demands a greater share of the world's limited supply of oil, good jobs are being lost and gas prices are soaring. Should we blame China or take responsibility for our own Attitude that set up this costly scenario?

Michigan Attitude especially ignored the laws of physics, building top-heavy SUVs to give drivers an added sense of power by riding high over the rest of the world. Never mind SUVs are prone to rollover accidents, so heavy they're a threat to people in normal-sized cars and burn gas at double, triple or quadruple the rate of the most efficient vehicles. Once Detroit figured out how they could take advantage of cheap gas, simple laws of physics weren't allowed to stand in the way of multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns to fuel America's taste for these machines. SUVs are the essence of Attitude. And Michigan politicians of both parties covered for Detroit with special legal exemptions for these Attitude vehicles.

Eventually, however, the rules of economics, laws of physics and forces of nature do rule. With the world's economy demanding ever more fuel and the peak of global oil production soon upon us, pumping more oil to meet increasing demand will no longer be possible. Even with Attitude, the U.S. will not be able to repeal the law of supply and demand.

If our country is to regain its footing, we'll need a little less Attitude and a lot more discipline, innovation and respect for reality. Just like environmentalists have been saying for years.