Score another point for Portland, the king of green cities.

Where would you want to be living if the price of gas shot up to $5, $6, even $8 a gallon as a result of a terrorist attack on energy supplies or a massive hurricane that wiped out gulf coast refineries? Not Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Houston, Texas, or other unsustainably designed cities, according to a report by the environmental website, SustainLane.com. The study evaluated the top ten cities in the country to live in the event of an oil shock, judging them according to their public transportation systems, access to wireless networks for telecommuting, low level of sprawl, and the availability of locally grown organic produce.

Los Angeles deserves plaudits for many of its environmentally progressive initiatives – among them, fuel-efficient municipal vehicles and a pledge to generate 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2010. But much of this progress is rendered moot by the city's horrendous traffic-congestion problem, which stems from a sub-par – if not totally inadequate – public transportation system. Happily, The Governator and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are working on (or at least talking about) tackling the problem.