OT oil shortage

At 08:41 AM 7/9/01 -0600, Richard wrote: Dammed Right! I used to live in Roanoke, Virginia during the so called "energy shortage" in the mid-70s. Roanoke was the headquarters of the N&W Railroad and is located on their main line between W.Virginia and the seaports on the east coast of Virginia. EVERYDAY I used to see a multitude of trains loaded with nothing but coal from W.V. headed to the seaports to be loaded and hauled to Japan and other countries. This was at the same time that we couldn't heat our houses or drive our cars due to a "lack" of coal and oil! Wake up, folks! These "shortages" are nothing more than the manipulations of the oil industries and other large companies and are designed to do nothing except increase their profits. Go look up the statistics for the amount of oil imported during the so called arab oil embargo of the 70s. It was virtually the same as before the "embargo" but yet the comsumers were hood-winked into believing that there was a major shortage and tricked into paying more than double the price for all fuels. Even the ones that originated in the US. Go look at the amount of oil, gas or electric power consumed in this country. Has it declined at all in the last 30 years? No, of course not. The oil and power companies don't want it to decline, they have to keep up their profits. Stop and think about what's going on in this country. The major companies are screwing the American public on a daily basis and many of the politicians (particularly the Republicans) are playing right along. The companies invent these crisis and then use them as a pretext to not only rob us blind but also to circumvent numerious laws including conspiracy, anti-trust and enviromental laws. If you have doubts about the willingness of the politicians to play along with the enrgy companies, go look up the donor's names and amounts of the contributions to guys like GWB. All of that data is public record. While you're at it look up his investments in the oil and other energy related companies. With conficts of interest like his, we will never develope an alternative to oil and gasoline and we will never resolve the "energy crisis". Ok, I'll get off my soap box now. Joe