The BBC does alternate history!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7820196.stm
So...what if gas prices did get higher sooner? How/why unimportant...Lets just say it happens in the least world affecting way possible (whatever that is)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7820196.stm
Could Communism have lasted longer if it had been propped up by more dollars from selling energy to the capitalists? Might Boris Yeltsin's reform programme have succeeded if he had enjoyed the higher oil prices which came after his time in office?
The effect is not confined to the realms of research and political theory.
So...what if gas prices did get higher sooner? How/why unimportant...Lets just say it happens in the least world affecting way possible (whatever that is)