As everyone knows I have always sneered at conspiracy theorists, but given that the Middle East is full of nations that:

A: Sell us billions worth of oil
B: Have billions of free dollars burning a hole in their pockets
C: Would be quite unhappy if the West developed major energy alternatives and stopped buying their oil (they have nothing else to sell)

It's starting to get a bit difficult not to imagine that some palms are being greased somewhere along the line to keep us from developing our domestic energy sources, oil and otherwise.

The temptation to irrational paranoia gets even worse if you start to imagine a patient and civilized Islam that eschews violence and terrorism, and has chosen instead to take the long road of simple legal economic conquest.

I still have no trouble shrugging the temptation off, but now and then, it creeps back.