Exactly! And there remains the prospect of Alternatives, that have to include thorium! Imagine $100.00 worth of thorium could conceivably run my car for 100 years without refueling? And given that's so, for just $1.00 a year!

Confected scarcity has only given ample oxygen to the shale oil industry and a determination to become self sufficient, on the part of the larger economies, which could include us, if ever we are wisely led by leaders, with just a grain of a speck of a scaric of intelligence, which will allow those still able to use the brains they were born with, to see that selling our gas to what is essentially a flooded energy market has not been wise! Some of which should be rolled back to enable complete self sufficiency at home!

And doble given no vehicle currently plying our highways and byways can't be retuned with simple adaptation to run on CNG! (Compressed natural gas.)

And as the first consequence produce around 40% less carbon and for just cents! one cubic metre of gas, having the same calorific value as a litre of petrol.

It's our gas, and the actual (natural) costs are what it costs to drill the holes and lay the pipes! All of which can be subcontracted by the government acting for the owners, (we the people) for a once only fee!

We have copious gas and more than enough thorium to power our economy for more than a thousand years, then there is endlessly sustainable biogas! Which can be scrubbed then used in lieu of CNG.

Every domicile the world over, likely produces enough biological waste, which when converted by the most simple means to biogas, to power both home 24/7, plus the family jalopy!

OPEC has held the world by the economic short and curlies for far too long, with disastrous consequences for the global economy and the global environment!

Time for a silent revolt and voting with our feet and at the ballot box! After all, it really is the economy stupid!
Alan B.