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Comment by fpoling | Hacker News Reader

With this prices it is cheaper to make fuel from coal, the break even price was about 80-90 USD/barrel. And if this continues for months this will pushes wind and solar and electrical cars making natural gas and oil much less relevant. Maybe that was the plan.

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Nowhere in deciding to attack Iran was "maybe this will help wind, solar and electric cars."

plans change… :)

This would require there to be a plan in the first place..

no plan is not a plan? :)

In the US, the frackers will switch back on if it continues long enough.

The Saudis have been trying very desperately to keep the price of oil below the threshold where that occurs.

> And if this continues for months this will pushes wind and solar and electrical cars making natural gas and oil much less relevant. Maybe that was the plan.

This is one of the most batshit insane things I've ever read. What on Earth would make you think this?

I doubt it was anyone's plan. However it is likely the effect - you can build more wind and solar anywhere. Asia is finding it hard to get oil which means anyplace in Asia that gets power from wind/solar (or coal - but not where the investments will go although there are a number of things like that in play) instead of oil/gas will have no problems. People unable to get gas who see EVs still working will want one - those with money will buy them. People who see EVs stranded too (because the local power is oil/gas) will still be mad - but they will ask what can change, and wind/solar are right there are cheap answers and so they will get it.

Of course the open question is how long will this last? If this situation ends this week (seems unlikely but...) people will go back to what they did before and forget about this until the next oil crisis - just like every other one. However if this drags on a few years expect major changes in energy mix as people find other answers. Either way, wind/solar are cheap and so utilities around the world are looking to get some installed because it is generally a great investment.

> Of course the open question is how long will this last?

Five years.

"Trump started the war in Iran to make green energy and EVs more desirable" is an actual conspiracy theory that is going around, although, ya, definitely an unintended consequence.

High oil prices does increase demand for petrodollar, but EV adoption decreases. But I don't think revenue from petrodollar really matters much when you spend nearly $1b per day on missiles.

I think real irony is that Iran keeps shipping oil to China and India. At which point US will start nabbing these tankers?

I don't think the US wants a war with China yet, so bombing a Chinese tanker sounds like a bad idea, but Trump isn't exactly the most stable genius, so who knows.

India is right next to Iran, it would be really hard to cut off trade between them. Pakistan definitely doesn't want to get involved (being an ally of the US AND China).

US wouldn't bomb tankers, obviously. But boarding and sending them where they came from does make sense.

False flag operation makes some sense too.

Given how the previous conspiracy theories turned out we really needed some unconfirmed ones, thanks.

Google's memetic division (~100k employees) is A/B testing AI generated memes as part of their market manipulation (step 3: profit).

The A/B tests include low-effect control memes: as null-tests or for exposing information flow.

So you should get more unconfirmed theories in your social media.

BTW: which Oracle do you use to confirm your conspiracies?

Citation needed. I really struggle to believe anyone actually believes this.

> Maybe that was the plan.

Whose?

The Mossad and various abrahamic apocalyptic cults will finally push us into green tech. Maybe I judged them too harshly.

Whose plan?

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