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The comments here assume that, if The Powers That Be (TPTB) would only understand that their plans will cause horrendous pollution, use up scarce natural resources faster, be less efficient, make life on earth more difficult and more expensive, and increase the misery of the masses, then they would change course and act in a more rational manner to the benefit of all.
Your assumption is all wrong. TPTB are already acting in a rational way if you understand that their sole purpose is to increase their power and profits.
Let me use a simple example. Adding ethanol made from corn was originally proposed in the early 1990's to reduce smog. It really didn't help reduce smog as gas mileage suffered, so as cars burned more gas with the added ethanol, smog production stayed the same if it didn't get worse.
After awhile, people lacked enthusiasm for the use of ethanol in gasoline, and some of us pointed out that adding ethanol used more oil, since gas mileage got worse, and the growing of corn used a lot of oil in itself, further worsening the situation.
However, profits were increasing since oil consumption was increasing and demand for oil was increasing, and these factors provided a convenient excuse for increased oil prices.
At the same time, the automobile companies (part of the same Wall Street controlled energy-military-industrial complex) were promoting the sale of bigger, more gas guzzling trucks, cars, and SUVs. The clueless public went for it. The experimental all-electric vehicles built by GM in the 1990s (the EV1 and EV2) and test driven by the public in California, proved so popular, that a panicked GM withdrew from the program and destroyed almost all of them.
However, Japan doesn't have a lot of oil on hand, so their auto industries have for a long time worked to improve gas mileage in their vehicles. The development of the fuel efficient hybrid electric Prius demonstrated to the world what could be accomplished with the latest technology.
Wall Street is in a panic. With the new electric vehicles, effective gas mileage could potentially increase to the situation that there will be an oil "glut" in which case oil consumption and oil prices will drop so precipitously, that the profits and power of the oil companies will plunge with it.
Wall Street needs a new plan. Here it is. The collapsing U.S. economy means that profits from America are decreasing and unlikely to recover. However, there are still a lot of resources in North America in the form of coal, tar sands oil, and natural gas. However, the North American markets are dwindling, just as the markets in a China flush with money and a burgeoning new middle class are growing exponentially.
However, the cheapest way to extract these resources are extremely polluting. Americans will never accept it, unless Wall Street can convince the public that allowing dirty extraction will increase supply (for them) and lower gas prices at the pump. The American public is in a panic, and gullible anyway, so they will go for it.
Once the oil from tar sands is extracted, it can be transported to China where a growing demand will raise the prices to new higher levels. The oil companies can "honestly" explain this action as necessary as a collapsed economy in the U.S. provides no market, while demand from the "global economy" requires "free trade". So you see, the power elite has thought out the future very rationally. Therefore, as a patriotic American, you should turn around, bend over, relax, and enjoy it.
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