I think what Rehcub was presenting was not so much as a sudden switch
but the scene after the transition is completed.
The one thing missing in that scenario is storage of energy.
That is the biggest outstanding achievement yet to be found before we
can complete a transition.

At some point along the way we will have to accept that liquid fuels
will end and all transport will be electrical.
We run the risk of being pushed out of the international oil market
and will have to start the transition on perhaps 30% of the liquid
fuels that we presently use.

Just think what that sudden transition would be like.
Got a bicycle ?

Would we need stowage, wind, wave, hydro.
More use can be made of Friction generators for steam, to power buses and trains.
No doubt timetables of work habits and manufacturing times would be more regulated.
Other than that there will be plenty of time for transition as equipment comes on line.
At the moment we are years behind USA in Transition of any sort.

rehctub - Your scenario of doom and gloom for every industry does not stand the test of logical thinking.
You imply that every industry is geared toward to the none renewable energy sector, TOTALLY WRONG.

1) Geologists are employed to find many other commodities than oil,coal and uranium they look for gold,diamonds and many other things that have nothing to do with energy supply.

2) Manufacturing industry won't collapse people still need steel for buildings, bridges etc

3)Airlines won't suffer people will still travel, coal oil etc is not moved around the world on planes.
Above are just a few there many more industry's that it would have very little effect on.

And at night we would use candles.

579, what are friction generators ? or was that fiction ?
Airlines will suffer, such use of oil products will not be allowed as
too wasteful of a precious resource.
Price will probably ground them first anyway.

Coal, you might notice today on the news, is becoming too expensive to mine.
There was an announcement that a coal mine was closing because it was
no longer economic. This happens because the seams get too small or the
coal degrades too much.

I believe there are non coal steel making techniques.
We will need prodigious amounts of electricity to run that I guess.

Know something, the transition has alreadt started.
It always used to be easy to park close enough to the local station.
Now, to do that I have to park about half way to home, so I don't bother anymore.
The population of the area has not changed.

Bazz, it might also be that that idiot Obama has been attacking coal mining so hard, & with shale gas competing with coal fired power generation, the US are now exporting as much coal as we do, & selling it cheaper.

Add new low cost mines opening all over Africa, & we are going to have to start winding back some of the work conditions, & costs in our mines, to remain in business.

The easiest way to do that is shut them down for 6 months, then reopen, with a new workforce. That is much easier than trying to talk sense to mining unions, or have long strikes, with all the rancor that develops.