Prelude author Kurt Cobb/The battle over Vermont's Yankee nuclear plant

Carl Etnier, host of "Equal Time," asks guest Kurt Cobb about his peak-oil-themed thriller, Prelude, in a wide-ranging interview covering who in government circles understands peak oil, Vermont's new peak-oil-aware governor, the inscrutable and often unmanageably complex human-built systems within which we live, the advisability of using nature as a guide for redesigning those systems, and recent revelations in the media about exaggerated and perhaps fraudulent claims concerning the amount of natural gas we can expect from shale gas fields. The second half of the hour-long program is devoted to an interview with Vermont Law School faculty member Don Kreis who discusses the federal courtroom battle over possible closure of the Yankee nuclear power plant in Vermont. The interview includes audio excerpts from arguments made before the court.