Good! Alan B.

As a bit of background, at the end of 2014 there were 1600 drilling rigs in the US operating.
The count fell to under 400 by earlier this year. It has climbed to
around 600 the last I saw, so it has a way to go yet.

The whole shale operation is still plagued by the short lifetime of a well.

There's no time limit on oil rich algae production, nor converting seawater to ready to use fuel! The latter probably requiring the adoption of SAFE, CLEAN, CHEAP Molten salt thorium to be viable/competitive! The former requiring the intelligent use of the brains we were born with; plus essential government facilitation and investment!?

Arguably the very best and smartest way available to us, to INTELLIGENTLY address all the issues pertaining to water use, the environment, ultra-wise investment with our limited money and wealth creation along the length and breadth of our Murray/Darling!?

The missing element is political will! Too many politicians, with oil shares methinks? And to hell with the energy dependant economy or fuel affordability? Or energy independence/national security?

And why there's always a too hard basket? Sometimes allowing won't ever, to be confused with can't, by the mugs/useful idiots in downtown mugsville?

Don't you just love the way prices always invariably seem to steeple, with the holiday season and the extra fuel excise this always seems to generate for a visionless unimaginative govt? Who are patently powerless to change this seeming collusive cartel like dynamic? Or are they? Output bottoming and excise revenue rising, with every turn of the production limiting valves?

After all, our elected representatives are our servants, with the best interests of the nation, our economy and energy dependant security, made a first order preeminent priority!? Therefore this seemingly deliberate production bottleneck has to have their blessing? Surely!? Well!?

It's not like we had any IMMEDIATE alternative strategy available to us, like retaining easily recovered and copious natural gas here, for our own use, is there? Better we continue to allow profit repatriating, tax avoiding fuel companies to sell this stuff to our foreign competitors at bargain basement fire sale prices!? A clever lose/lose strategy engineered by? GOVERNMENT!?

And who says there isn't a vehicle currently plying our highways and by ways that couldn't be tuned to run on CNG!? And wouldn't that rip a huge hole in fuel excise, or the profits of foreign oil cartels/our dividends? We can't allow that, can we?
Alan B.