Where is Peak Oil on the Risk Continuum?

In New York Times Magazine, there's an article (reg. req'd) about an art exhibit at MOMA called: 'Safe: Design Takes on Risk'. The author points to an article by Richard A. Posner who writes that:

massive infrastructure planning in anticipation of something that may never happen is, politically, a hard sell. But on an individual level, we are quite receptive to the idea that this or that consumer purchase might be just the thing to prepare us and protect us - at least from the threats we are able to imagine.

Why is it so hard to imagine worsening oil shortage as an imminent threat? Why do we systematically refuse to acknowledge the reality?

The U.S. Dept. of Energy commissioned, then buried, a report (pdf) entitled: Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management.