On the Energy Crisis; Or, Was Mark right about the manipulation theory?

Recently I purchased a wood pellet stove. It seems that all of America has also had the same idea. After purchasing the stove, I happened to call a local Coop to see about purchasing a supply of "feed" or wood pellets to burn. "We're all out," the gentleman said. " All of America is switching out of natural gas and the demand for wood pellets was something we did not foresee."

Throughout the purchasing process in the back of my mind I had been remembering the comment by "Mark" who suggested that his gut instinct was that a lot of this "crisis" was manufactured manipulation. The thought that we in America could have run out of wood pellets when we were so close to the timber forests of Canada just frankly got me a little fired up. After shopping further, I found some "budget" pellets at a mass big box chain that produced about three times the amount of ash as the oak pellets I had grown accustomed to, and burned about twice as quickly. In fact, at the rate they burned, they became more expensive than natural gas.

At church on Sunday, I mentioned my fuel frustration to a fellow worshiper. I suggested that America might have to switch to burning cow manure. He replied that technically it might be possible. The obvious name of the company would be Cow Power Co-op.

He did mention however, that if the problem was in fact manipulation, shortly after the magic of cow manure was discovered, we would wake up to learn that only two or three people in Rock County had cornered the total supply and that there was a shortage.