Organizers of an "oil shockwave" wargame used a mock-up of the White House situation room and former government officials as stand-ins to demonstrate what would happen if the cost of oil dramatically increased, the New York Times reports:
War in Iran. Gasoline rationing, at $5 a gallon. A military draft. A Chinese takeover of Taiwan. Double-digit inflation and unemployment. The draining of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
This is where current energy policy is leading us, according to a nightmare scenario played out as a policy-making exercise here on Thursday by a group of former top government officials.
Two bipartisan business-supported groups sponsored an elaborately staged role-playing game called Oil ShockWave that tried to dramatize the impact of American dependence on oil imported from unstable and unfriendly parts of the world.
The organizers have an agenda: They hope to prompt Congress to act on energy legislation and to push the issue into the presidential campaign.
I was hoping for some sort of dramatic outcome (isn't that the fun of war games?), but sadly, like in real life, it sounds like they just sat around and wondered about the "politics" and what the "public thinks." Maybe that makes it realistic? As the article noted: "Thursday’s exercise, the organizers acknowledge, was a bit of a stunt to publicize the issues and nudge Congress and the presidential candidates."
