Gas prices in California and the rest of the US have been artificially raised in order to swing public support for drilling for more oil in Alaska despite protest from environmental groups.-- ps, Mar 17 2000 Doubtcome.com http://www.doubtcome.comAn open, dedicated forum for all kinds of conspiracy theories. [jutta, Mar 17 2000] Yes! If you're stifling debt sales, but STILL getting people's money, the desperate can reduce gas consumption for those few extra survival dollars, yet inflation is kept in check even as the rich get richer!-- dean, Mar 21 2000 YES! i totally agree. And have you ever seen what they do up here (i live in the great state of AK)???? The trans alaskan pipleline is so leaky you can smell it for miles! their pumping sites have a way of destroying the muskeg/tundra around them. They make big brown spots on the ground. AND THEY ARE DRILLING MORE PUMP SITES AS WE SPEAK!!!!!-- fishee, Apr 24 2000 Hummm, me thinkest the price of gas go up so oil man make more money to put in mistress pocket-- scotty1969, May 29 2000 so while the gas prices in north america are artifically low (versus the market, due to little things like "desert storm" and presidential begging), they're also artifically high (in an attempt to develop support for more domestic oil)? but there's still no incentive to widely deploy anything but 12-mpg SUVs, at least around here.-- big_lunk, Jun 02 2000 This is actually very apt, seeing as England is currently in the grip of a huge media backlash towards the price of petrol. We are currently paying around £1 per litre of petrol, at least 60% of which is taken by our government in tax (although only 20% of this tax is put towards improving roads etc.). Just thought I'd add that.-- MrTheRich, Jun 30 2000 So your House of Representatives has approved drilling in Alaska, I see. Good. In the face of the head-up-own-arse confusion that your administration has about Kyoto, and where your record-setting polluting is done not just by the big bad commercial giants but significantly by All-American Joe in his SUV... where Royal Dutch/Shell and BP *want* self-imposed controls on emissions but your government doesn't, believing that it can hold out against the rest of the world as its 25% share of pollution production increases in proportion to the rest of us...Alongside all that, you're going to allow more drilling in Alaska. I have two words for you: Wytch Farm. It's not impossible to extract fossil fuels cleanly you know. Is it because the stuff is black and carcinogenic that you find it distasteful?, or because it's made of dead animals? Do you object to the oil giants investing in their own renewables research? One more word: Myopia.-- lewisgirl, Aug 02 2001 lewisgirl: Yeah, loony barstids--despoil OPEC countries so's USians can have cheap gas, but leave our caribou tundra alone. Mind you I live in Oregon's mostly Miocene-to-recent terrane where the only native hydrocarbon is duck farts so I don't have to worry too much about getting despoiled, but I agree that our national hypocrisy is stunning.-- Dog Ed, Aug 03 2001 <geology pedant> Dog Ed, 'terrane' means something rather more like 'craton' - a small plate making up continental crust. Your Miocene to Recent (capital 'R' because it's a proper time-period name) lands are terrain... however, if my memory serves me correctly they are pretty flat. </geology pedant>Duck farts, tee hee.-- lewisgirl, Aug 03 2001 lewisgirl: Thanks for the tutelage. //if my memory serves me correctly they are pretty flat// Oregon is of mixed flatness--we've got a fair coastal range and of course the volcanic Cascades, both ultimately chalked up to subduction of the North Pacific Plate, I believe. There are some flood-basalt plains in the center of the state, odd stuff like the Deccan Plateau but not as extensive. Also several ranges (terrain made up of exotic terranes accreted to the continent, if I understood your lesson aright) stand above the basalts and there are some impressive fault-block mountains and scarps in the southeastern quarter of the state.-- Dog Ed, Aug 03 2001 Top marks! You do of course know that the mountains of Alaska are the same chain as the 'range' of the Basin and Range... and the Rockies, and ultimately the Andes. [Just as the Spanish are aware that their picturesque Pyrenées (no longer fiery) are intimately connected to the Alps, the Dolomites, the Apennines (after a fashion), the Himalayas and next to be consumed will be Indonesia.] Oregon, well now, you could analogise Oregon any way you like. Similar to the Peruvian Altiplano?-- lewisgirl, Aug 03 2001 I dunno Peruvian geology well enough to analogise. Certainly Oregon's "high desert" is pretty small potatoes compared to the Altiplano. In Oregon the coastal range (~500 to 1000 meters tops) is sedimentary with bits of mixed-in basalt; the Cascades (2000 to 3000 meters) is volcanic, and the interior basalt layercake is at ~1000 to 1500 meters, with odd hunks of older stuff sticking up through the basalt here and there.
Growing up I envied Britain with its chalk and trilobites quite a lot. All I ever found was a few bits of petrified wood and the odd clam, yes, we had it rough. Oh, I would have given anything for a trilobite...-- Dog Ed, Aug 03 2001 Well, since gas didn't (at least, didn't yet) hit 48 month lows this summer, we're likely seeing some fiscal policy shifting by our Federal Reserve. An explanation that is germane to this discussion is that bond prices will follow oil upward in anticipation of directing bail money to Argentina (We're freezing our assets off down here) and Brazil.-- reensure, Aug 04 2001 It probably doesn't belong among other conspiracy theories, but that's because it's rather less well-thought-out. It would take a lot of research and elaboration before it could be set alongside more popular, long-standing ones.
Isn't it possible that even some uneducated, less-reasonable people could doubt that there's a worldwide energy shortage? Because of the total absence of reasons to think that there is, I mean.-- Monkfish, Aug 04 2001 random, halfbakery