I had this idea. Naturally, when I thought of it, I began to devise a stratagem to deliver it, a textual barrage of statistics and theories and citations that lent credibility to my theory. And then I thought, what hell, why get complicated. So here it is:

What if there was a president who had a few high level friends in the oil industry, and what if this president was nearing the end of his administration and he had promised that, at some point in his reign, he would open up offshore drilling to his buddies and, for good measure, also the ANWR, and what if this particular unpopular president didn’t have much luck delivering on his promise and was looking for ways to come through because maybe, just maybe, he was looking ahead to his life after the White House, and what if the solution that he came up with was to manipulate oil prices SO high, that the public would eventually agree to just about anything the White House proposed when it came to drilling - “yes,” they’d all cry, “drill. Drill, drill, drill. Drill wherever you have to as long as it means getting us oil for cheap. Drill, for god’s sake. Drill.” - and what if the subsequent pressure to open up these previously unopenable places turned from a whisper into a roar, a cacophony for crude, and what if the Congress finally shrugged their collective shoulders, and voted Yes?

Nah. Couldn’t happen.

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/bush-to-urge-congress-to-allow-offshore/n20080617201409990008

I propose to you, dear reader, that this very thing is happening right now. I propose that the oil industry is funding the traders, who in turn are bidding up oil futures under the guise of “hedging against inflation” and that as soon as the legislation is passed to drill offshore from every beach in America, the price of oil will plunge to a very comfortable, historically adjusted, median price.

I predict that this legislation will be rammed through sometime near the end of this Congress’ term.

Listen, I’m not against oil independence. I’m very supportive of not being held hostage to foreign governments whose countries happen to sit on top of big oil fields. But what I am against is the fact that we are being lied to - again - to line a few billionaire’s pockets.

Let’s develop real technology, now, that precludes having to even depend on oil at all. Oh, wait, my bad, that technology is already available. I wonder, do you think we’ll ever have a leader who will have the guts to defy the oil industry and guide us toward a future where we don’t have to depend on oil?